Commentary

'Cage Match' Between PubMatic, AppNexus 'Not Good For Anyone'

In case you missed it, let's get you up to speed on last week's spat between PubMatic and AppNexus.

AdExchanger ran an interview last week with AppNexus CEO Brian O'Kelley. In the interview, O'Kelley called sell-side platform (SSP) PubMatic "dead," saying, "there's not enough money in the pure publisher business."

"If you're not an ad network -- like PubMatic isn't -- you're dead," O'Kelley asserted in the interview. "There's no room right now, economically, to grow if you're not an ad network."

PubMatic responded the following day via a blog post. They called O'Kelley's comments an "outburst," and likened them to a 3 year old standing up and dropping an F-bomb.

"It’s entertaining, but pay it too much attention and you’ll just end up encouraging the kid," the company wrote.

Browsing Twitter, you see that PubMatic's blog post wasn't their first shot at AppNexus following the AdExchanger interview. The timestamp on the below tweet shows it came a few hours after AdExchanger posted their interview with O'Kelley.

One industry expert called the entire situation "not good for anyone," adding, "I don't think VCs advise that the best exit strategy is to beat up on other companies in the industry."

"It's not good for anyone because industry bickering -- this ad tech cage match -- doesn't help the marketer, the ultimate customer that ad tech companies are supposed to be serving," the source went on. "Posturing may be happening to try to appease potential buyers for their companies. However, is beating up on the one you think is the prettiest one at the ball the right way to attract a suitor?"

"When you have these companies that are keen to sell, this behavior isn't all that surprising," a source said. "There seems to be a lot of emphasis on seeking attention when more should be placed on serving the needs of advertisers in a very complex landscape."

A PubMatic representative told RTM Daily, "What little noise there was [on the spat] has died down."

"Destroying Competition" photo from Shutterstock.

2 comments about "'Cage Match' Between PubMatic, AppNexus 'Not Good For Anyone'".
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  1. Christopher Brinkworth from Ensighten inc (acquired TagMan), November 12, 2013 at 4:19 p.m.

    “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”
    - Warren Buffett

  2. kevin lee from Didit / eMarketing Association / Giving Forward, November 12, 2013 at 4:33 p.m.

    Not sure the fireworks will be as entertaining, but I'm moderating an event that has several of the players on a panel re: Programmatic Buying. http://emarketing-chat.com/

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