• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, May 4, 2023

Shares of ad-fraud and brand-safety firm DoubleVerify have fallen at double-digit rates over the past few days following a short-seller investor's criticisms that the publicly traded ad tech firm faces considerable downside risk.

"The claims made in the report included 'grave concerns about the accuracy of its financial reporting to investors, efficacy of its product suite, and the sustainability of its growth story," Madison and Wall analyst Brian Wieser noted in a report to subscribers this morning, adding a detailed point-by-point analysis of the allegations, which he described as "selective, suggestive or in some cases impossible to prove."

DoubleVerify this morning announced a new "pre-bid attention optimization" product that it claims enables brands and agencies to "maximize campaign performance at scale by identifying inventory characterized by high attention."

In a statement, CEO Mark Zagorksi stated that the product comes in response to "demand for alternate performance currencies," including "attention-based measurement" among advertisers.

"Building on the success of DV's Authentic Attention, a [Media Rating Council]-accredited measurement solution, we are excited to provide advertisers with innovative attention activation segments to further enhance campaign performance," he stated.