Smart AdServer acquires Bertelsmann subsidiary LiquidM

Eschborn/Nuremberg, Janu­ary 2020 — Rödl & Part­ner has advi­sed Smart AdSer­ver (Smart), a port­fo­lio company of Cathay Capi­tal on the acqui­si­tion of the global demand side plat­form Liqu­idM. Prior to its acqui­si­tion by Smart, Liqu­idM was part of the Bertels­mann Group. The current mana­ging direc­tors Phil­ipp Simon and Thomas Hille will conti­nue to support the Berlin-based company in this capacity.

With the acqui­si­tion of Liqu­idM, Smart aims to acce­le­rate its product deve­lo­p­ment and ther­eby better align supply and demand. With the help of LiquidM’s sophisti­ca­ted tech­no­logy, adver­ti­sers and digi­tal publishers will be able to achieve grea­ter finan­cial and opera­tio­nal effi­ci­ency. They are provi­ded with a bran­ded and data secure envi­ron­ment through the provi­sion of deal manage­ment, audi­ence acti­va­tion and data control. This allows them to further expand their program­ma­tic adver­ti­sing busi­ness with consu­mer privacy as a cornerstone.

About Liqu­idM
Liqu­idM is a self-service demand side plat­form (DSP) opera­ting world­wide. It enables agen­cies, adver­ti­sers and trading desks to achieve their marke­ting goals using the power and effi­ci­ency of program­ma­tic adver­ti­sing. As a full-stack demand side provi­der, Liqu­idM offers compre­hen­sive campaign manage­ment capa­bi­li­ties. With a clean and intui­tive user inter­face, Liqu­idM simpli­fies the process of defi­ning, scaling, opti­mi­zing and editing adver­ti­sing campaigns. Foun­ded in 2013 in Berlin, the company is one of the first DSPs on the market with exten­sive exper­tise in mobile adver­ti­sing, a more tech­ni­cally complex envi­ron­ment than desk­top advertising.

About Smart
Smart is the leading inde­pen­dent adver­ti­sing mone­tiza­tion plat­form. The fully trans­pa­rent plat­form and the shared inte­rest approach enable premium publishers and brands to receive a fair share of the ad value at any time on their terms. The holi­stic archi­tec­ture effi­ci­ently dove­tails direct and program­ma­tic adver­ti­sing inven­tory and empowers market­ers, publishers and website opera­tors to take complete control of all marke­ting chan­nels. Smart works directly with more than 1,000 publishers world­wide. Inter­na­tio­nally, Smart can count Finan­cial Times, Groupe Marie Claire, Trac­Fone, Le Figaro, Lebon­coin, Altice Media Publi­cité and IMGUR among its clients. Global provi­des smart display, video, rich media, and native adver­ti­sing for over 50,000 websites and apps. In German-spea­king count­ries, Smart works with most of the top AGOF publishers. The company opera­tes twelve offices world­wide and has estab­lished itself as a leading player in buil­ding a trans­pa­rent and high-quality ecosystem.

Consul­tant Smart AdSer­ver: Rödl & Partner
Jochen Reis, Part­ner, Photo (Head of Tran­sac­tion Services), Esch­born, Over­all Project Manage­ment — Financial
Simon Nieder­mann, Senior Asso­ciate (Tran­sac­tion Services), Esch­born — Financial
Michael Wiehl, Part­ner (Corporate/M&A), Nurem­berg — Legal
Jens Linhardt, Senior Asso­ciate (Corporate/M&A), Nurem­berg — Legal
Sebas­tian Dittrich, Senior Asso­ciate (Corporate/M&A), Nurem­berg — Legal
Dr. Chris­toph Kurz­böck, Asso­ciate Part­ner (Labor Law) — Legal
Marta Wiśniewska, Senior Asso­ciate (Corporate/M&A), Nurem­berg — Legal
Juliane Krafft, Asso­ciate (Corporate/M&A), Nurem­berg — Legal
Florian Kaiser, Part­ner (Tax Law), Nurem­berg — Tax
Dr. Ramona Christ, Asso­ciate (Tax Law), Nurem­berg — Tax