The Big Story

Apple said it will pull IP addresses from Safari and its Mail app at its Worldwide Developer Conference this week, raising the privacy bar to new heights. But at what cost to ad tech?

The architect of Methbot was found guilty in a New York court last week. In this episode, we dive into the most intriguing details of the case – and what it means for the rest of the programmatic advertising industry as it continues to fight the good (and ongoing) fight against the scourge of ad fraud. We also talk about Tapad pulling out of Europe, and how GDPR has made cross-device identification a legally fraught business model.

Big Tech is fending off antitrust and monopoly accusations left and right. This week, we discuss Epic’s lawsuit against Apple. There’s also a larger narrative against Big Tech that’s taking hold, which we discuss, including what soon-to-be-confirmed FTC commissioner Lina Khan has already said publicly that alludes to this case.

During this live taping of The Big Story at AdExchanger Innovation Labs, the team discusses Xandr’s prospects at AT&T now that WarnerMedia is being spun off and combining with Discovery. We also get into privacy in connected TV, and how supply path optimization on CTV is already a thing.

Wall Street proved a fickle friend to ad tech on Monday, when tech stocks dipped – The Trade Desk among them. We discuss Wall Street's bets on ad tech, the prospect of further ad tech M&A and ad tech talent seeking refuge in walled gardens.

Private equity firm Apollo Global Management’s $5 billion acquisition of Verizon Media from Verizon is evidence that telcos, ad tech and media wasn’t the delicious cocktail that was promised. The team dives into why. Also in this episode: the CTV gold rush and observations from the frontlines of the NewFronts. (It’s all about streaming, baby.)

After months of anticipation, Apple will start enforcing ATT with the debut of iOS 14.5.

This week on The Big Story, the team litigates not just the binary coverage from the mainstream media that will influence the public conversation, we’ll also try to unpack what Apple is actually doing.

In this week's episode, the team broadcasts LIVE from AdExchanger’s Innovation Labs: Commerce Day event. And here’s your main takeaway if you weren’t able to attend: the fragmentation in the world of commerce-related media is … insane.

Also, Apple finally announced-without-announcing that enforcement of its AppTrackingTransparency framework is coming next week with the release of iOS 14.5. We'll tell you what that means.

When the Wall Street Journal exposed Google's secret Project Bernanke, it confirmed what publishers already knew: that Google used publisher ad server data to advantage its own buying systems. Those are the broader strokes - but the specifics are still vague. In this episode, we'll talk about what we know, what we don't know, and who was harmed by Google's decision.

This week, ad tech is a field full of unicorns. Luma's cautious optimism around the state of deal making late last year bore serious fruit Q1 2021, with seven deals clocking over $1 billion. The team welcomes Luma director Conor McKenna to talk about what's going on.