FreeWheel to acquire Beeswax

FreeWheel, a Comcast Company, today announced that it has agreed to acquire Beeswax. Beeswax is a software as a service (SaaS) advertising company, known for programmatic in-housing projects.

Beeswax has a different SaaS pricing model. Clients pay a flat fee based on tech usage instead of a spend fee.

Beeswax was founded in 2014 by a team of former Google executives and provides a Bidder-as-a-ServiceTM platform. Beeswax customers include Uber, DraftKings, and Nexstar. Beeswax is headquartered in New York City and has raised $28 million in funding.

According to FreeWheel, Beeswax's acquisition will expand FreeWheel’s current programmatic marketplace capabilities across all forms of television and video advertising, including Connected TV (CTV) and Set-top Box Video on Demand (STB VOD).

“Together, FreeWheel and Beeswax can further enhance how television operates. As the ecosystem becomes increasingly complex, sellers and buyers of media want similar capabilities: great automation, simplicity, and the ability to manage data-driven campaigns across hundreds of endpoints. By incorporating Beeswax’s technology into FreeWheel’s offering, we can deliver even more value to clients of both companies, helping them better navigate and succeed in this new landscape,” said Dave Clark, General Manager, FreeWheel.

Ari Paparo, Beeswax CEO wrote that it “cannot think of a better home for Beeswax than within FreeWheel, the leading technology provider to the global advanced TV business.”

FreeWheel expects to close the transaction in January 2021, pending regulatory approvals. The financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.