TechCrunch put its spin on the financials of ad tech provider OpenX, which reports racking up $140 million in net revenue (basically, revenue after ad payments have been distributed to publishers) in 2015, up 40% year-over-year. The company isn’t disclosing the size of its profits, but it does say that it’s profitable, and that its profits have tripled over the past two years. “As our core business continues to scale profitably, we are using our strong financial and market position to invest aggressively in innovative high-growth areas like video and new buying models; in the next generation of our No. 1 …

AdExchanger takes a look at four publishers and creative solutions to ad blocking such as asking users to unblock. The report cited research that showed requests to turn off ad blocking resulted in 30-40% of users whitelisting the publisher, according to data shared by GQ (30%), IDG Communications (37% for B2B and 38% for B2C) and Forbes (42.4%), who have experimented with this type of messaging in recent months. Food Innovation Group, which is also running tests, declined to give a specific figure.

Advertising Age reports that while ad blocking pioneer Adblock Plus has been disinvited from the Interactive Advertising Bureau's annual leadership summit in California, a different ad blocking software provider, Ghostery, is still attending and speaking on stage. Scott Meyer, CEO and co-founder of Ghostery, an anti-tracking extension, will be speaking at the summit. "The over 400,000,000 downloads of AdBlock Plus are not going to go away," a blog post from Adblock Plus said. "Disallowing Adblock Plus from attending your event solves nothing. We will proceed to work with others to build a sustainable monetization model for the Internet."

Campaign U.S. reports on the ad fraud problem vis-a-vis a new study by Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and Ad Ops. The global price tag for ad fraud this year is estimated at $7.2 billion. Campaign says the pricier the ad, the more likely it will receive fraudulent impressions. Susan Kuchinskas reports that display media with CPMs over $10 had 39% higher bot traffic, while video ads with CPMs over $15 had 173% higher bot rates, according to the study. At a time when programmatic ad buying accounts for a growing slice of publisher revenue, the study found that programmatic …

While trade groups and other entities have tried to make the industry aware of just how big a problem ad fraud is, the problem remains overwhelming. According to the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and White Ops, companies could lose more than $7 billion globally this year to ad fraud, the Wall Street Journal reported. In its study, the ANA found that in 2015, advertisers found between 3% to 37% of their ad impressions were created by bots compared to an earlier study where the bot traffic ranged from 2% to 22%. The study indicates the problem is getting worse, …

AdExchanger reports that AppNexus is mulling its options as the IPO climate remains unfriendly, so the company may not be able to go public any time soon. Management and investors are also weighing a possible sale, according to sources familiar with the situation. The company's been talking to Goldman Sachs and other banks that represent potential buyers. AppNexus has lately beefed up its demand-side offering in order to better compete with giants like Google.

Techcrunch offers a nifty ad blocking primer -- the piece defines ad blocking: "The act of selectively downloading material when visiting a website or using an app, thus “blocking” the unwanted items from loading. Most often this refers to ads, but it can cover anything, like embedded media, social widgets or tracking beacons." And it goes on to discuss how it works, why people would use ad blockers (the reasons seem fairly obvious but the piece spells out each reason), where ad blocking doesn't work and the options for ad networks, publishers and advertisers. If you need a brushup, this …

The Drum'sdigital editor Ronan Shields weighs in on a study of mobile and programmatic media issued last week by the IAB UK. That study found that nearly two-thirds, or 64%, of mobile display ads are being traded using programmatic media buying technologies. But the real zinger was that 45% of those polled indicated "no or little knowledge" of the programmatic sector despite the fact that half of all mobile display inventory is being purchased via programmatic tech. Shields concludes that despite a plethora of programmatic service providers, brands will continue to need their agencies to help them navigate this increasingly …

AdExchanger reported that the Media Ratings Council is focusing on mobile viewability measurement this year. The MRC issued an update in November and says it will have a proposal ready for public comment by end of Q1 2016. One of the most important issues it's contending with is the mobile feed environment and consumers' interaction with it.

Snapchat is reportedly sniffing around the ad tech space for a company that it can acquire to help automate its ad sales, according to Re/Code which cited multiple sources. Snapchat executives, according to the sources, have met with several ad tech firms including Beeswax, a startup that helps advertisers bid to target specific users, and Metamarkets, an analytics firm that specializes in programmatic buying. Snapchat declined to comment.