Below is a roundup of last week’s notable industry news, with summaries and our opinions. IAS: From PE to shining PE.

U of Digital’s AI Accelerator is THE go-to course for marketing and advertising professionals looking to get a head start on AI.

And now the industry’s leading AI DSP, Yahoo DSP, is the exclusive sponsor of the AI Accelerator!

The next Accelerator launches on October 14th. Use promo code YahooDSP for 20% off individual tickets. Email [email protected] for team discounts. TICKETS ARE SELLING FAST, ENROLL NOW!

#KnowledgeIsPower #HumansAheadOfAI

Top Stories 👁️

IAS Acquired by Private Equity Firm Novacap for $1.9B 
Source: Adweek
September 24th, 2025

Summary: IAS provides independent verification and measurement of digital ad campaigns. The deal with Canadian private equity firm Novacap will take IAS private just four years after its June 2021 IPO, with shares valued at $10.30 each—a 22% premium over the September 23rd closing price. IAS has posted solid financials since becoming a public company, with revenue growing 12%+ annually over the past three years.

Vista Equity Partners, which acquired a majority stake in IAS in 2018, will exit its investment as part of this transaction. IAS CEO Lisa Utzschneider expressed enthusiasm for the PE backing, saying Novacap will provide "new resources to achieve our strategic goals" and help IAS become "the global benchmark for trust and transparency in digital media quality." IAS faces fierce competition from rival DoubleVerify and the AI-first verification startup Scope3.

This deal comes roughly a year after Bloomberg reported IAS was exploring a sale, which sent shares up nearly 12% at the time. Around the same period, IAS also raised prices of its brand safety solutions by 1-3 cents per CPM—a move that raised eyebrows given the company had been facing scrutiny from firms like Adalytics and government agencies, questioning the effectiveness of their brand safety tech. 

The acquisition was unanimously approved by the IAS board and is expected to close later this year, pending regulatory approval. 

Deal Grades:
Novacap: C+
IAS: B

Opinion: IAS is stuck.

The growth problem is straightforward. IAS and DoubleVerify are an ad verification duopoly. They've already captured most of the market. Marketers view verification as a necessary evil and a tax, not a growth driver. Marketers don’t want to pay more for verification services, they want to pay less. IAS & DV’s attempts to expand into adjacent areas like ad serving and attribution haven’t been impactful enough. Big platforms are building their own, in-house brand safety tools and eating into their market share. There's simply no clear path to the kind of growth that justifies an aggressive public market valuation.

Then there's the Scope3 problem. While IAS dealt with public company scrutiny earlier this year, like Adalytics reports and government investigations, VC-backed startup Scope3 was architecting verification solutions from scratch using AI to disrupt the market. Scope3 Founder and CEO Brian O’Kelley knows why IAS is going private; to compete with him. He even posted about it.

O’Kelley is right. IAS needs massive changes. Going private gives them some cover to do what's necessary: gut the product, rebuild around AI, make risky M&A bets, turn over the team, change the go-to-market strategy, and do it all without explaining everything to analysts every 90 days. Expect significant change over the next 18-24 months.

The industry is bifurcating. Legacy companies built on rules-based tech are entering their adapt-or-die phase. AI-native companies that are lightweight and dynamic are the future. It’s happening in ad verification now, but it makes us wonder: which other ‘mature’ ad sectors (e.g. DSPs, SSPs, etc.) might see a similar story play out in the next few years?

Paid Subscribers See ALL The Digital Advertising News.

Thank you for reading the U of Digital Newsletter.
Continue reading by upgrading.

That’s It For This Week 👋

The U of Digital Weekly Newsletter is intended for subscribers, but occasional forwarding is okay!

To subscribe visit Uof.Digital/Newsletters or contact us directly for group subscriptions.

And remember, U of Digital helps teams drive better outcomes through structured education on critical topics like programmatic, privacy / identity, CTV, commerce media, AI, and more. Interested in learning more about how we can supercharge your team?