Magnite, the Nasdaq-listed company whose software sells advertising space on behalf of streaming services, apps and websites, on November 4, 2026 reported third-quarter net income of $34.0 million, up 70% from $20.1 million a year earlier. Revenue rose 14% to $204.2 million. Contribution ex-TAC, the non-GAAP measure Magnite treats as its top line, rose 20% to $200.6 million, above its own guidance range of $188 million to $192 million. Streaming television, which Magnite calls CTV, grew 39% on that measure and now accounts for 53% of the total. Political advertising before the US midterm elections did much of the lifting: Magnite now expects it to contribute more than $40 million in 2026, against the $15 million it had previously projected.

In Short

Magnite runs the technology that streaming services, apps and websites use to sell their ad space to buyers, and it made far more money this summer, mostly from streaming TV and from election ads placed before the US midterms. That matters to companies buying or selling ads outside Google, Meta and Amazon, because Magnite is one of the largest independent marketplaces where those ads change hands, and its results show budgets moving toward streaming TV while ordinary websites grow slowly. Next year the election money disappears, so Magnite expects its growth to slow to about 10%, or more than 15% if political ads are left out of the count.

A quarter above every range

All three of the ranges Magnite had given for the quarter were exceeded. CTV contribution ex-TAC came in at $105.4 million against guidance of $98 million to $100 million. DV+, the label Magnite uses for its display, online video and mobile app business, delivered $95.3 million against a range of $90 million to $92 million. According to chief executive Michael Barrett, total contribution ex-TAC beat expectations "by over $10 million", CTV by $6 million and DV+ by $4 million. Those figures line up with the midpoints of the guidance ranges rather than the top ends, PPC Land's comparison shows.

Adjusted EBITDA rose 46% to $83.4 million, a margin of 42% of contribution ex-TAC against 34% a year earlier. On a GAAP basis, income from operations roughly doubled, to $50.5 million from $25.0 million, according to the Form 10-Q filed the same day. Diluted earnings per share were $0.23, up from $0.13, and non-GAAP earnings per share were $0.33, up from $0.20.

Costs barely moved. Total expenses, including cost of revenue, were $153.7 million, slightly below the $154.5 million of the third quarter of 2025. Cost of revenue fell 8% to $64.0 million, mainly because traffic acquisition costs dropped by $9.1 million. Sales and marketing rose 4%, technology and development 6% and general and administrative 7%, the last driven by $1.8 million of additional professional fees, including legal costs.

The net income figure would have been higher still under last year's tax position. Income before taxes rose 118% to $45.6 million, but the tax provision jumped to $11.6 million from $0.9 million. The 10-Q explains that the 2025 figure benefited from deferred tax assets that were subject to a valuation allowance; Magnite released most of its domestic and foreign valuation allowances in the fourth quarter of 2025, so the 2026 quarters carry a normal tax charge. PPC Land's calculation puts the effective rate for the quarter at about 25%.

Why revenue grew more slowly than contribution ex-TAC

The six-point gap between 14% revenue growth and 20% contribution ex-TAC growth comes from accounting, not from a change in the underlying business. Most transactions on Magnite's platform are booked on a net basis: Magnite records only its fee, because it acts as an agent for the publisher. Campaigns sold through insertion orders, where Magnite acts as the primary obligor, are booked gross, with the full ad spend counted as revenue and the payment to the publisher recorded as traffic acquisition cost. Contribution ex-TAC adds back cost of revenue excluding that traffic acquisition cost, so it treats both kinds of transaction alike.

Gross-basis revenue fell to $5.9 million in the quarter from $19.4 million a year earlier, or from 11% of revenue to 3%, according to the 10-Q. The filing gives the reason: "The decline in our revenue reported on a gross basis as a percentage of our revenue is primarily due to declines in our managed service business, which is accounted for on a gross basis, as advertisers continue to shift budgets towards more automated solutions." Net-basis revenue rose 24% to $198.3 million, PPC Land's calculation from the filing's table shows.

The same effect explains why CTV looks stronger on the non-GAAP measure. GAAP revenue from CTV rose 24% to $108.8 million. CTV contribution ex-TAC rose 39%. The 10-Q states that CTV revenue growth "was negatively impacted by a decline in the relative percentage of transactions reported on a gross basis." Both numbers are accurate. They answer different questions.

Streaming now carries more than half the business

CTV contribution ex-TAC reached 53% of the total, up from 45% in the third quarter of 2025. Over nine months, CTV contribution ex-TAC rose 35% to $284.8 million, or 52% of the total. The trend has accelerated through the year. In the first quarter, CTV crossed 50% of contribution ex-TAC, growing 30% to $82.3 million. In the second quarter, CTV grew 36% to $97.1 million and Magnite raised its full-year outlook to 13% to 14%. The third quarter added another three points of growth. For comparison, in the first quarter of 2025, CTV grew 15%.

Barrett attributed the growth to both buyers and sellers. "Across our top 10 CTV accounts, growth was once again in the mid-40% range year-over-year, with the remaining partners also growing above 30%," he said on the call. He named Disney and ESPN, Fox and Tubi, LG Ads, Netflix, Roku, Skydance, Vizio and Walmart among the media owners where Magnite saw strong growth. Political money contributed roughly 9% of the CTV figure, according to chief financial officer Brian Gephart. Without it, CTV would still have grown about 26%, PPC Land estimates from the disclosed share, assuming the year-earlier quarter carried little political spending.

Why the mix of demand matters

Much of the explanation sits in SpringServe, Magnite's CTV platform, which since April 2025 has combined its streaming supply-side platform and its ad server, according to the 10-Q. "When we're the primary ad server, obviously we enjoy the economics of SpringServe as the ad server, but SpringServe is also the very efficient path to our programmatic demand," Barrett said. "And when we're not the primary ad server, we're usually the programmatic ad server of choice."

He also pointed to where the money comes from. Asked about softer markets, he said: "We are definitely finding the same thing that's been consistent through any of these kinds of cycles, folks lean more heavily on programmatic, and they lean more heavily on Magnite-sourced demand. Obviously, that carries a different economic profile than publisher-sourced demand." When the buyer arrives through Magnite's own demand connections, rather than through a deal the publisher arranged and simply runs through Magnite's pipes, Magnite earns more per dollar.

The 10-Q makes a related point about auction types. Magnite expects CTV sellers to make more inventory available through open auctions with multiple bidders rather than through programmatic guaranteed deals, and says those auctions earn it a higher take rate, the share of each advertising dollar that Magnite keeps. In the filing's words, "biddable transactions tend to require a higher level of service and therefore carry a higher take-rate compared to reserve auctions." What Magnite earns is therefore partly a function of how publishers choose to sell.

The 25% aspiration

Barrett repeated a long-term CTV growth rate of about 25% over three to five years. Pressed by Susquehanna's Shyam Patil, he set it against the market: "I suppose that 25% isn't just completely taken out of thin air," he said, adding that industry growth rates, "generally speaking, they're in the low teens." He went on: "So 25% would peg us at roughly double the industry growth rate. And although that's not something we pledge to, it's certainly something that's aspirational and we think very attainable."

Live sports, which Magnite used to call out quarter by quarter, has become routine, Barrett said, and the company does not plan to break it out every quarter. "It's a significant chunk of the media that we transact on our platform and it's growing rapidly," he said. One technical change he highlighted was letting demand-side platforms bid on the four slots of an ad break, which he said "helps eliminate advertiser conflict", the problem of two rival brands appearing in the same break.

International streaming is growing too, though Magnite does not give a CTV split by region. "When Netflix launches into new markets, we follow. When Paramount does it, we follow," Barrett said, noting that media owners without local sales teams lean on programmatic first. Revenue from sellers outside the United States rose to $52.5 million from $44.8 million, or 17%, against 13% growth in the United States, according to PPC Land's calculation from the 10-Q's geographic table. The international share was 26%.

Election money: $12 million in a quarter, more than $40 million in a year

Political advertising contributed approximately $12 million in the third quarter, or 6% of contribution ex-TAC, Gephart said. It made up about 9% of CTV and about 3% of DV+. "Political was a big contributor and far exceeded our expectations, coming in at approximately $12 million in Q3 with more than three-quarters of it benefiting the CTV business," Barrett said. "We experienced a very strong midterm cycle this year, and Q4 political spend will be even larger than Q3."

The full-year figure changed sharply. "In total, we are now expecting political contribution ex-TAC to be over $40 million for 2026 versus the $15 million previously projected," Barrett said. "To put this in perspective, this is more than double the last presidential election and nearly four times the last midterm cycle." The written release describes the same expectation as "nearly three times our initial forecast". Political will account for more than 5% of contribution ex-TAC in 2026, Barrett said, against 2% to 3% in previous election years.

He gave three reasons: record midterm spending, CTV taking a larger share of campaign budgets, and Magnite's own tools. Industry forecasts had pointed the same way. AdImpact projected 2026 midterm political ad spend at $11.6 billion, above the $11.2 billion of the 2024 presidential cycle, with $2.6 billion going to CTV.

ClearLine took a fifth

The tool Barrett singled out is ClearLine, Magnite's buying product, which the 10-Q says gives buyers direct access to premium CTV inventory along with curation capabilities. "Approximately 20% of our political ad spend flowed through ClearLine, becoming one of the largest conduits for this demand across our platform," he said. Political agencies, he added later, re-evaluate their technology every cycle, and ClearLine "made the grade". Magnite folded curation and activation into ClearLine in October 2025.

ClearLine also changes what Magnite earns. Asked by SSR's Tim Nollen whether the product helps its take rate, Barrett said: "We charge for ClearLine, so it's definitely in addition to the incremental demand where we benefit from the take rate from our publisher partners. ClearLine itself is charging a fee and therefore that's incremental ex-TAC for us too." In other words, a dollar bought through ClearLine can carry a buyer-side fee as well as the seller-side fee. Barrett also claimed that, counted across holding company marketplaces, ClearLine has access to "multi-hundred billion dollars in spend". He gave no breakdown, and the figure describes potential reach, not transactions.

Magnite has a dedicated political team in Washington, D.C., which Barrett described as "staffed by political ad veterans with numerous cycles under their belts."

What the election did to other advertisers

Political money did not arrive without displacement. "As it relates to political crowding out other advertising, that's certainly the case," Barrett said in response to RBC's Matt Swanson, describing the volume of political spending in certain states as "really astounding". He continued: "There's no question it crowded out advertising. One of the unknowns is how quickly it comes back after the election last night, so we're watching that very closely." The call took place on November 4, the day after the US midterm vote.

The point matters for brands that paid more, or were squeezed out, in contested states during the autumn. Magnite's own guidance assumes the fourth quarter will carry even more political spend than the third, which implies the effect continued into the final weeks before the vote.

DV+: apps offset the open web

DV+ contribution ex-TAC rose 5% to $95.3 million. Split by device, mobile contribution ex-TAC rose 5% to $67.8 million and desktop rose 4% to $27.5 million, according to the 10-Q. Mobile in-app was the strongest part. "Mobile in-app continues to be a primary contributor, growing 17% year-over-year in Q3 and now represents approximately 35% of the DV+ business," Barrett said. App publishers, he argued, have made their inventory more attractive to brand advertisers, which plays to Magnite's buyer base rather than to the performance specialists that dominate app monetization.

Outside apps, Barrett credited commerce media, advertising sold by retailers and other companies with customer purchase data. Asked by Craig-Hallum's Jason Kreyer about pressure on the open web from falling search referrals, he did not dispute it. "Yeah, it's no question that's a reality," he said. "I think what's saving our DV+ numbers is not just a team doing an outstanding job, but our deep penetration into commerce media." He continued: "The numbers would be much stronger if it were more of a search-generated traffic world as opposed to answer engines. But I think we are pretty well hedged with our portfolio to weather that, where individual publishers may have much greater exposure than the Magnite platform."

The 10-Q puts the risk in writing. "AI is changing the way in which users access information and content on the open internet, in particular with respect to search referral traffic, which has and is expected to continue to decline," the filing states. "This shift could reduce the volume of open web display inventory monetized through our platform." Publisher data supports the description. Chartbeat's third-quarter report found that search fell to 12% of North American publisher pageviews, from 21% a year earlier, and earlier Chartbeat data showed small publishers losing 60% of their search referrals over two years.

CTV is also taking budget from the open web directly. "There's no question that with the attractive price points of some of the CTV offerings, that is definitely siphoning dollars off of the open web, particularly video in the open web," Barrett said. International DV+ is "challenged in some markets because of pricing, economic backdrops, etc.," he added.

Gephart gave the clearest statement of what Magnite expects from DV+ over time: "Overall, the way we think about that business is roughly flat to modest, low single-digit growth." For the fourth quarter, Magnite guides DV+ to $103 million to $106 million, growth of 2% to 4%. For a business that was declining 5% in the first quarter, low single digits is an improvement, but it leaves almost all of Magnite's growth to CTV.

Google remedies sit outside the forecast

The one factor that could change the DV+ picture is the Google ad tech case, and Magnite has deliberately left it out of its numbers. The background, according to the 10-Q: on April 17, 2025, the federal court in the Eastern District of Virginia ruled that Google had illegally monopolized the publisher ad server and ad exchange markets for open web display and had unlawfully tied the two. On September 2, 2026, Judge Leonie Brinkema declined to order a sale of Google's ad exchange and rewrote its auction rules instead. The unsealed opinion set out a six-year worldwide decree with an independent monitor. The 10-Q notes that Google "has indicated its intent to appeal the decision."

Magnite's filing explains why this matters to its display business. Its SSP competes with Google's exchange for placements inside Google's publisher ad server, "which is estimated to be used by approximately 90% of open-web publishers." Magnite argues that the conduct found unlawful "artificially depressed our ability to win impressions within the Google display ad server."

On the call, Barrett said the company was still waiting for the final order. "We applaud the Court's approach in adopting the key behavioral remedies proposed by the DOJ and believe that the ruling will result in a more balanced and level playing field with fairer options, greater transparency, and increased choice for publishers," he said. Timing remains open. Some remedies are policy changes, while others require engineering work "that Google has estimated to be 12 to 18 months, and the industry estimates it shouldn't take more than six to 12 months."

Asked by Wolfe Research's Shweta Khajuria what signals to watch, Barrett named two, one involving Google's advertiser demand and one involving Prebid, the open-source header bidding framework that independent exchanges such as Magnite use to compete for web inventory. The first would be AdWords demand being "freed up from having to spend on the Google stack", which he said "would be very encouraging". The second would be "AdX going through Prebid as opposed to AdX sitting outside of Prebid", which "could be a very encouraging sign." He called the situation "still wet cement".

There is a difference in tone between the documents. The investor presentation lists the remedies under "Recent Wins" and describes them as "unlocking AdWords demand". On the call, Barrett described the ruling as having "the potential to open up additional access to AdWords demand," and said it would benefit DV+ "at some point, hopefully sooner rather than later." The 2027 guidance, Gephart said, "does not factor any upside from Google remedies."

Magnite is also a plaintiff. It filed its own antitrust suit against Google on September 16, 2025, seeking monetary damages, an injunction, structural relief and costs. Litigation expense, which covers the Google action and the defense of class action privacy lawsuits, was $2.0 million in the third quarter against $0.5 million a year earlier, and $3.8 million for nine months. Magnite excludes it from adjusted EBITDA.

Agents, OpenAI and the hedged gardens

Several of the quarter's announcements involve AI buying agents, and Barrett was candid about how little money flows through them. "A lot of interest, a lot of test and trial, not a lot of dollars," he said. Magnite offers its own buyer and seller agents and, since June, Magnite Orchestration, an orchestration layer that lets outside agents find and transact on inventory. Usage splits evenly between the two approaches. "It's like 50-50. Half the people use our tools, half don't," Barrett said. As for a sudden surge: "I think it's still going to be a year of exploration in 2027."

That is consistent with what he said in July, when he put the most optimistic 2027 forecasts for agentic ad spend at $600 million to $700 million. In September, Magnite extended Orchestration to Samsung Ads home screens, iHeartMedia audio and DIRECTV, without disclosing volumes or prices.

The partnership list in the investor presentation is long. LG Ad Solutions signed a three-year extension that keeps SpringServe as its exclusive ad server and opens the LG home screen to agentic buying. Samsung Ads chose SpringServe to power automated buying of its home screen placements globally, a change PPC Land reported in June when Samsung opened its home screens to programmatic buyers. Walmart Connect uses Magnite as an SSP partner for Connect Select, its CTV marketplace. Pinterest named Magnite its primary supply-side partner for Programmatic Deals, which launched in North America, South America and Asia Pacific but not Europe. On the call, Barrett added that HP TV+ selected Magnite as its primary video ad server and programmatic partner, and that Magnite had expanded its relationship with TV maker Telly to cover programmatic sales of its home screen units.

OpenAI came up twice. Asked by Rosenblatt's Barton Crockett to confirm a media report, Barrett said: "We don't have a lot of latitude to go much beyond that statement that OpenAI issued. So we are definitely working with them. We are one of their partners, and we are working in the capacity of an SSP piping in demand into the OpenAI advertising inventory." He gave no financial terms or start date.

Earlier, describing Pinterest and OpenAI as "hedged gardens" rather than walled gardens, Barrett said such companies take time to accept outside buyers but move quickly once they do. "These kinds of deals with folks that have big ad businesses tend to deliver gains rather quickly," he said, while "some of the newer commerce media deals where the customer hasn't been in the media business before definitely take longer to ramp up." Several deals signed so far "haven't really contributed meaningful revenue", he said, and "will light up in 2027."

AI companies are also buying ads through Magnite. "AI as an advertising category is a very growing category for us. We benefited from that. Not to the degree that we would call it out as one of our top categories, but it is certainly a contributor to our revenue growth," Barrett told Needham's Laura Martin. Outside political, Gephart said, retail and financial services were the strongest verticals, while automotive "continued to grow modestly."

Costs: servers instead of cloud

Adjusted EBITDA operating expense, which Magnite defines as contribution ex-TAC minus adjusted EBITDA, was $117.3 million, about 7% higher than a year earlier, PPC Land calculates. Gephart said spending came in below guidance mainly because of infrastructure. "We have been successful keeping cloud costs roughly flat year-over-year by moving capacity on-prem. Through this effort, we have reduced our cost per billion ad requests by over 50% year-over-year for streaming," he said.

The balance sheet shows the shift. Computer equipment and network hardware rose to $248.5 million at the end of September from $227.8 million at the end of 2025, and depreciation on property and equipment rose to $9.1 million in the quarter from $6.5 million. Magnite still carries a cloud commitment: a non-cancelable managed services agreement running from July 2025 to June 2028, with minimum spend amounts for each twelve-month period. Total non-cancelable obligations beyond one year stood at $115.2 million, of which $78.3 million falls in 2027.

Capital expenditures, including capitalized software, were $15.3 million in the quarter against $18.1 million a year earlier, and Magnite reaffirmed about $60 million for the year, which Gephart called "a reduction from prior year."

AI is also cutting internal costs, according to management. Gephart cited "encouraging productivity benefits from AI across engineering, operations, sales, and G&A." Barrett said the cycle from customer request to product launch "has completely collapsed" with AI tools. Neither gave headcount figures. Stock-based compensation, which Magnite excludes from adjusted EBITDA, was $16.5 million, down from $18.0 million, and equal to about 8% of contribution ex-TAC by PPC Land's calculation.

Cash, debt and buybacks

Cash and cash equivalents were $392.9 million at September 30, down from $553.4 million at the end of 2025 but up from $333 million at the end of June, Gephart said. Debt fell to $350.0 million from $556.1 million after Magnite repaid $205.1 million of convertible senior notes in cash when they matured on March 15, 2026. Net cash was $42.9 million, against net debt of $2.8 million at the end of 2025.

According to the investor presentation, net leverage, debt minus cash over trailing four-quarter adjusted EBITDA, was 6.2 times in the second quarter of 2021. Gephart put it at negative 0.2 times at the end of the third quarter. The path was not smooth this year: the chart shows leverage rising to 0.7 times in the first quarter of 2026, and in the second quarter Magnite borrowed $60.0 million under its revolving credit facility "to fund short-term operating requirements" and repaid it within the quarter, incurring $0.6 million of interest, according to the 10-Q.

On October 7, 2026, Magnite repriced its debt for the third time under its 2024 credit agreement. The $357.7 million term loan now carries Term SOFR plus 2.50%, down from 3.00%, and the $175 million revolver margin fell to 2.50% to 3.00% from 3.50% to 4.00%. Gephart said the term loan repricing alone saves about $1.8 million of cash interest a year. The term loan started at SOFR plus 4.50% in February 2024 and has been cut three times since.

Magnite repurchased or withheld nearly 1.2 million shares for about $29 million in the quarter, Gephart said. The 10-Q shows all of it happened in August: 816,000 shares bought under the buyback program at an average of $24.52 and 358,000 shares withheld for employee taxes at $24.73. For the first nine months, the total reached about 5.5 million shares and $86 million, including shares withheld. As of September 30, $144.9 million remained under the $200 million authorization approved on February 23, 2026, which runs through February 29, 2028.

The 10-Q also shows the scale of money passing through Magnite's accounts. Accounts receivable were $1.43 billion and amounts payable to sellers were $1.69 billion, both far larger than revenue because Magnite bills buyers for the full purchase price and pays publishers their share. The filing warns that "in the event a buyer defaults on payment, we may still be required to pay sellers for the inventory purchased." The allowance for credit losses was $3.6 million.

Executives' trading plans

Four officers adopted or ended Rule 10b5-1 trading plans in the third quarter, according to the 10-Q. Barrett adopted a plan on September 15, 2026 to sell up to 600,000 shares between December 15, 2026 and March 15, 2028. Sean Buckley, president of revenue and market strategy, adopted a plan to sell up to 357,727 shares between December 11, 2026 and December 9, 2027. David Day, the former chief financial officer, adopted a plan to sell up to 75,601 shares between November 16, 2026 and March 3, 2027. Chief legal officer Aaron Saltz terminated a plan covering up to 100,000 shares. All sales are subject to conditions set in the plans. The call was Gephart's first as chief financial officer; he has been at Magnite for more than five years, according to Barrett.

The outlook: faster in 2026, slower on paper in 2027

For the fourth quarter, Magnite guides contribution ex-TAC to $227 million to $233 million, growth of 16% to 19%. CTV is expected at $124 million to $127 million, growth of 33% to 36%, and DV+ at $103 million to $106 million, growth of 2% to 4%. Adjusted EBITDA operating expense is guided to $125 million to $127 million, which Gephart said implies an adjusted EBITDA margin of 44% to 46%.

Gephart set the current full-year outlook against the previous and original figures:

  • Contribution ex-TAC growth: at least 11% originally, then 13% to 14%, now about 17%
  • Adjusted EBITDA growth: mid-teens originally, then more than 20%, now about 30%
  • Adjusted EBITDA margin: at least 35.5% originally, then at least 37%, now about 38.5%
  • Free cash flow growth: mid-30% range originally, then the high 40% range, now above 60%

Magnite defines free cash flow as adjusted EBITDA minus capital expenditures minus net interest expense, not as GAAP operating cash flow minus capital spending. GAAP net cash from operating activities was $168.8 million for the first nine months of 2026, against $107.7 million a year earlier.

2027 without the election

The first 2027 guidance shows the cost of losing midterm money. Magnite expects top-line growth, excluding political, to accelerate over 2026, to more than 15%. On a total reported basis the release gives 10%; Gephart said "over 10%" on the call. Adjusted EBITDA margin is guided to at least 38.5%, the same level as 2026. Neither figure includes any effect from the Google remedies.

A rough check supports the gap. If 2026 contribution ex-TAC grows about 17%, PPC Land's calculation from 2025's nine-month figure and the fourth-quarter growth rates puts it near $785 million, of which more than $40 million would be political. Remove that, add 15% growth on the rest, and the result is roughly 9% to 10% above the 2026 total before any off-year political spending is added. The company has not published that arithmetic.

Why this matters for the marketing community

For publishers, the quarter puts numbers on two trends. Streaming inventory sold programmatically is growing several times faster than web display, and the independent sell side is increasingly built around CTV ad servers and home screens rather than open web pages. Magnite's own description of DV+ as "roughly flat to modest, low single-digit growth" for the long term is a frank statement from a company that depends on that business for nearly half of its contribution ex-TAC.

For advertisers, the quarter shows how much the US midterms affected streaming supply. A sell-side platform that expected $15 million in political money now expects more than $40 million, and its chief executive said plainly that this crowded out other advertising in some states. The fees matter too. Magnite earns more when demand comes through its own channels, and more again when buyers use ClearLine, which carries its own charge on top of the publisher-side take rate.

The comparison with the buy side is uncomfortable for independent ad tech. In August, The Trade Desk guided third-quarter revenue to at least $650 million, about 12% below a year earlier, while PubMatic returned to growth in the second quarter after three quarters of decline. Magnite's results suggest that sell-side platforms with CTV ad-serving positions have fared better than those exposed mainly to web display. Whether the Google remedies shift that balance back toward display depends on a final order that, as of November 4, had not been issued.

Timeline

Summary

Who: Magnite, Inc. (Nasdaq: MGNI), the independent sell-side advertising company; chief executive Michael Barrett; chief financial officer Brian Gephart, on his first earnings call in the role; and analysts from Susquehanna, RBC, Craig-Hallum, StoneX, Needham, Rosenblatt, BTIG, B. Riley, Wolfe Research and SSR.

What: Third-quarter 2026 net income of $34.0 million, up 70%, on revenue of $204.2 million, up 14%. Contribution ex-TAC rose 20% to $200.6 million, with CTV up 39% to $105.4 million (53% of the total) and DV+ up 5% to $95.3 million. Political advertising contributed about $12 million, and Magnite now expects more than $40 million for 2026 against $15 million previously projected. Full-year guidance was raised to about 17% contribution ex-TAC growth and a 38.5% adjusted EBITDA margin. For 2027, Magnite guides to more than 15% growth excluding political, or 10% reported, with no Google remedies upside included.

When: The results, the 10-Q and the earnings call came on November 4, 2026, the day after the US midterm elections. The quarter ended September 30, 2026.

Where: Magnite is headquartered in New York. Sellers in the United States generated 74% of third-quarter revenue and international sellers 26%.

Why: According to Magnite, growth came from programmatic CTV, where buyers leaned more on Magnite-sourced demand, and from midterm political spending, about 20% of which ran through its ClearLine buying tool. DV+ was held up by mobile apps and commerce media while search referrals to publishers declined. Costs stayed nearly flat because Magnite moved capacity from the cloud to its own servers.