The Wall Street Journal today reported that AT&T is exploring a potential sale of Xandr, the ad tech company formerly known as AppNexus. According to WSJ, AT&T paid around $1.6 billion for AppNexus in 2018.
The Xandr leadership story
Brian Lesser joined AT&T in 2017 to launch and run the advertising unit. Brian Lesser led Xandr, acquired by AT&T in 2018, until March, this year.
Before AT&T, Brian Lesser served as North America CEO of WPP’s media buying unit, GroupM. Right now, Brian Lesser is the Executive Chairman of Infosum, a data company founded in 2015.
When Brian Lesser left AT&T in March, this year, WSJ reported that Xandr had difficulties in convincing TV networks to supply their inventory, as each TV network is interested in setting up their own data-driven TV products.
With Brian Lesser gone, advertisers started questioning AT&T’s commitment to Xandr, Digiday reported.
In May, this year, AT&T unified WarnerMedia and Xandr under the Chief Revenue Officer Gerhard Zeiler. Gerhard Zeiler has mainly a career in TV.
Kirk McDonald, at the time Chief Business Officer at Xandr, was leading Xandr, reporting to Zeiler.