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Saturday, May 2, 2020

AT&T’s WarnerMedia Absorbs Ad Tech Unit Xandr


AT&T Inc. is combining its WarnerMedia and Xandr business units—which has long been expected by company insiders—in an effort to have a single advertising sales and technology offering across the company, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Xandr has been at the center of AT&T’s efforts to build a so-called advanced advertising business. It aims to use the telecommunications giant’s wireless, broadband and pay-TV customer data to help advertisers reach custom audiences across screens. Xandr also offers digital publishers and TV networks tools to help sell their ad inventory.

AT&T built Xandr in 2018 from existing ad businesses including its advanced TV unit AdWorks and the advertising technology company AppNexus, which it acquired that year.

The Xandr business unit generated $489 million in first-quarter revenue, up nearly 15% year over year, according to AT&T’s earnings report. Some of the revenue booked under Xandr comes from AT&T’s pay-TV businesses including DirecTV.

AT&T’s WarnerMedia unit houses TV networks including TBS, TNT, Cartoon Network and CNN as well as various digital properties. It was formed following AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner in 2018.

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