Videology to file for bankruptcy, plans to sell assets

Adtech firm Videology, which has an office in Baltimore, is filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and plans to sell its assets.
A proposed deal to sell to Amobee, the adtech subsidiary of telecommunications company Singtel, is reported to be worth $45 million, according to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news. Under bankruptcy proceedings, other companies would be able to submit competing bids, and the sale is subject to court approval.
If the sale goes through as planned, layoffs are not expected, said a source familiar with the situation. The company employs 225 people total, with 100 in Baltimore based at McHenry Row in Baltimore.
Videology, which was founded in 2007, built software enabling video commercials on TV and other devices to be sold with digital tools that use data like online ads. The company was founded by Scott Ferber, who along with his brother John led Baltimore-based Advertising.com to a $435 million acquisition by AOL in 2004 that still reverberates throughout the city’s tech community. Along with the office in South Baltimore, New York–based Videology has offices in Austin, Toronto, London, Paris, Madrid, Singapore and Sydney. The company’s website states it had 400 employees.
Once seen as a potential IPO candidate, talk of a potential sale has been percolating this year for the company. Business Insider reported it was seeking a buyer in January. In March, marketing news outlet The Drum reported the company went through a restructuring, resulting in layoffs of 5-6 percent of its global workforce.
The company reported 60 percent year-over-year growth in “advanced TV campaigns” on its platform in November. But according to the Wall Street Journal, the company struggled to maintain revenue due to its legacy ad network business, and its 2017 revenue was slightly lower than its 2013 totals. The company has raised more than $120 million in venture funding, with a $60 million Series D closing in 2013 that generated IPO chatter. Investors include Comcast Corp., New Enterprise Associates and Valhalla Partners.
Last year, it secured an $80 million debt financing from FastPay and Tennenbaum Capital Partners.
In a statement issued Thursday, Ferber characterized the company’s digital ads for TV as being too far ahead of the curve for its current size. Below is the full statement from Ferber:

“We are confident that today’s transaction represents the best path forward for Videology and is in the best interests of all our stakeholders. Most importantly, we anticipate it being seamless for our valued clients and partners, while providing Videology the financial stability and strategic position to drive future growth.”
“Over the past decade Videology has successfully established ourselves as a leading provider of the software for the convergence of TV and video and have built a client list comprised of some of the biggest names on both demand and supply-side of the market. However, the industry is only in the early-stages of the TV and video advertising transformation that we were built to power, and it will take resources, capital and time to help transform a market as large as TV. The bottom line is that these moves put us in the best possible position to achieve our ambitious goals, and we remain dedicated to our mission of driving outstanding advertising results for our customers during this process – without interruption.”