Magnite this week reported its fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 financial results, revealing a substantial acceleration in connected television advertising that the company's chief executive described as a defining moment for the independent sell-side platform. Revenue for the three months ended December 31, 2025 reached $205.4 million, a 6% increase compared to the same period of 2024. For the full year, revenue climbed to $714.0 million, up 7% from $668.2 million in 2024.

The results were announced on February 25, 2026, and accompany the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

CTV surges to nearly half the quarterly mix

The standout figure was CTV contribution ex-TAC - a non-GAAP metric that strips out traffic acquisition costs to present a cleaner picture of platform economics. In Q4 2025, CTV contribution ex-TAC reached $93.6 million, up 20% year-over-year, or 32% when stripping out the effects of political advertising spend. That figure represented 48% of total quarterly contribution ex-TAC of $195.1 million, up from a 43% share in Q4 2024.

For context, Magnite reported CTV contribution ex-TAC of $75.8 million in Q3 2025, growth of 18% at the time, or 25% excluding political. The Q4 acceleration therefore represents a meaningful step up, and by Q1 2026 the company says CTV has crossed 50% of the total business.

According to Michael Barrett, Magnite's Chief Executive Officer, speaking on the February 25 earnings call: "We are extremely pleased to see a significant inflection in the growth of the programmatic CTV market, evidenced by our 32% top-line growth excluding political, in the fourth quarter, as well as strength into Q1."

He added: "We are witnessing spend shift into CTV from various areas of digital advertising." Barrett further stated on the call that "making streaming the majority of our business - that is a defining moment for Magnite" and described the long-anticipated programmatic CTV ramp as "no longer emerging. It is underway at scale."

Full-year numbers and profitability

For the full year 2025, Magnite delivered total contribution ex-TAC of $669.6 million, an increase of 10% from $606.9 million in 2024. CTV drove the largest share of that gain. Annual CTV contribution ex-TAC reached $304.2 million, up 17% from $260.2 million in the prior year. Mobile contribution ex-TAC grew 7% to $259.0 million, while desktop inched up 2% to $106.5 million.

Net income for the full year came in at $144.6 million, or $0.95 per diluted share. That compares with net income of $22.8 million, or $0.16 per diluted share, in 2024, and a net loss of $159.2 million in 2023. The significant swing is partly attributable to a one-time tax benefit. According to the company's filings, Magnite recorded an income tax benefit of $74.0 million for 2025, driven primarily by the release of U.S. federal and state valuation allowances on deferred tax assets, supported by three consecutive years of improving profitability and projections of continued taxable income. The company states that a material valuation allowance release of this kind is not expected to recur.

Adjusted EBITDA for the full year reached $232.1 million, an 18% increase over the $196.9 million posted in 2024, and the adjusted EBITDA margin expanded 2.3 percentage points to 34.7% of contribution ex-TAC. In Q4 specifically, adjusted EBITDA was $83.8 million, up 9%, with a margin of 42.9% - the highest quarterly margin the company has reported.

According to David Day, Magnite's Chief Financial Officer: "We had a strong Q4 and finish to the year with a great performance in CTV, achieving 20% contribution ex-TAC growth - or 32% excluding political - exceeding our expectations."

The DV+ drag and budget reallocation

While CTV outperformed, Magnite's display and video-plus segment - which covers desktop and mobile web inventory - painted a more cautious picture. DV+ contribution ex-TAC for Q4 was $101.5 million, a decline of 1% year-over-year, or an increase of 4% when excluding political advertising. That result came in below the company's own guidance range.

According to Barrett on the earnings call, the company "observed accelerated budget reallocation from DV+ into CTV across agencies, DSPs, and brands," a trend that "intensified in Q1." Barrett framed this largely as positive for Magnite: "The budget's just being allocated differently by the marketer," he said. "If the budget's being allocated to the faster growing platform, obviously any weakness in DV+ is manifesting itself in the CTV bucket." Day, elaborating during the analyst Q&A, described CTV revenue as "more protectable and sustainable" than DV+.

From a vertical perspective, according to the CFO, retail, health and fitness, and financial categories were the strongest in Q4, while technology and food and beverage showed additional weakness.

DV+ ad requests, the company noted, grew over 30% year-over-year in Q4, which it flagged as evidence that the business is not supply-constrained. The headwind is demand-side budget allocation, not inventory availability.

This pattern matters for marketing professionals tracking where programmatic dollars are moving. PPC Land has followed the CTV trajectory across multiple quarters, and the Q4 numbers suggest the shift is accelerating rather than plateauing.

Balance sheet and share buyback

Magnite ended 2025 with cash and cash equivalents of $553.4 million, up from $483.2 million at the end of 2024. Total debt stood at approximately $565.5 million, comprising the company's 2024 Term Loan B Facility and $205.1 million in convertible senior notes maturing in March 2026.

The company processed total advertising spend approaching $7 billion across its platform in 2025, according to Day's prepared remarks on the call.

On February 23, 2026 - two days before the earnings announcement - Magnite's Board of Directors approved a new two-year share repurchase program authorizing buybacks of up to $200 million through February 29, 2028. During 2025, the company repurchased or withheld upon vesting approximately 5.2 million shares for a total of $79.2 million. A prior repurchase program approved in February 2024 had authorized up to $125 million; under that plan, 4.5 million shares were repurchased for $60.9 million at an average of $13.43 per share, leaving $64.1 million unused as of December 31, 2025.

Net leverage for Q4 was 0, down from 0.3 times at the end of Q3 2025, according to Day on the call.

SpringServe, AI, and the technology roadmap

The structural driver behind Magnite's CTV position is its SpringServe platform, which the company acquired through the 2021 purchases of SpotX and SpringServe. In April 2025, Magnite unveiled the next generation of SpringServe, a unified solution that combines its ad server with programmatic supply-side platform capabilities. That platform reached general availability in July 2025.

The new SpringServe combines features of Magnite's streaming SSP and ad server to create what the company describes as a more efficient connection for buyers to premium CTV supply, while providing publishers with streamlined workflow and mediation tools through a single interface. According to the company's 10-K filing, the platform enables sellers to offer inventory to multiple programmatic demand sources competing in a unified auction - a capability analogous to header bidding in desktop and mobile, but built natively for the CTV environment.

Barrett addressed AI on the earnings call, dismissing suggestions that generative AI or agent-based buying would disintermediate infrastructure platforms. "What AI agents are going to do is make it work better," he said. "It's going to alleviate menial tasks from the traders, the planners, the ops people, and it's going to put more working dollars to play." He noted the company ran its first agent-to-agent campaign during the period, with Scope3 serving as the buyer agent on behalf of MiQ, with media running across LG and Warner Bros. Discovery inventory.

Magnite's September 2025 acquisition of streamr.ai brought AI-powered tools for creative generation and campaign setup aimed specifically at small and medium businesses. The acquisition reflects Magnite's effort to broaden the CTV advertiser base beyond large brands and agencies, addressing a longstanding barrier for smaller buyers who lack the infrastructure to produce television-ready ad creatives.

Separately, Magnite's ClearLine platform - the company's self-service direct buying tool for advertisers - continued to gain traction, with Barrett citing "significant traction with agency marketplaces" and "ClearLine adoption" among the growth drivers in Q4.

Commerce media is another emerging revenue thread. Magnite stated it had announced more than 15 commerce media partnerships by the end of Q4, 11 of which were deployed and ramping.

Google antitrust litigation and potential market reshaping

Magnite's business context cannot be fully separated from the ongoing antitrust proceedings against Google. The company filed its own federal antitrust lawsuit against Google on September 16, 2025, alleging systematic anticompetitive conduct in ad server and ad exchange markets spanning more than a decade. The complaint, filed as Case No. 1:25-cv-1541 in the Eastern District of Virginia, followed Judge Leonie Brinkema's April 17, 2025 ruling that Google "willfully engaged in a series of anticompetitive acts to acquire and maintain monopoly power" in publisher ad server and ad exchange markets.

Magnite's 10-K describes the company as seeking "monetary damages, an injunction, structural relief, and reimbursement of reasonable costs and expenses," while noting that outcomes are uncertain and may not materially affect financial results.

According to the 10-K filing, "The complaint alleges that Google has engaged in anticompetitive conduct in the ad exchange and ad server markets in violation of federal antitrust laws, including actions that restrict publishers' ability to use competing services and favor Google's own advertising exchange."

On the earnings call, Barrett stated the company is "awaiting Judge Brinkema's final order in the Google Ad Tech remedies phase," adding that "remedies could create meaningful share reallocation opportunities." The company has previously stated publicly that "every 1% of market share gained could represent approximately $100 million in incremental contribution ex-TAC" - a figure that frames the scale of potential upside if regulatory remedies limit Google's position in the open-web ad stack.

The European Commission's €2.95 billion fine against Google and its separate structural remedy proceedings add a further dimension to the competitive landscape Magnite is navigating. For marketing professionals, the dual pressure of the U.S. DOJ case and EU proceedings raises the genuine possibility that the ad exchange market could look materially different within the next two to three years, potentially opening inventory pathways that were previously difficult for independent SSPs to access.

Outlook for 2026

For Q1 2026, Magnite guided CTV contribution ex-TAC in the range of $76 million to $78 million. Total contribution ex-TAC was guided to be in a range that implies a decline of 6% to 8% for the DV+ segment, with adjusted EBITDA operating expenses expected to be approximately $122 million.

For the full year 2026, the company set an expectation of at least 11% growth in total contribution ex-TAC, adjusted EBITDA margin greater than 35%, and free cash flow growth greater than 30%.

The company characterized CTV as its "biggest growth driver" for 2026, consistent with what has now become a multi-year pattern. According to the company's annual filing: "For 2026, we expect Contribution ex-TAC will increase compared to the prior year period, and we expect CTV will be our biggest growth driver in 2026."

For the marketing community, the 2025 results provide detailed evidence about where programmatic spending is flowing. The DV+ deceleration reflects not just cyclical softness but structural budget migration. Agencies and brands moving dollars from desktop video into connected television are, by doing so, landing in a market segment where Magnite holds significantly greater scale and take rate than in the more competitive display and mobile web environment. An independent March 2025 study from Jounce Media confirmed Magnite covers 99% of the CTV supply market, with a 24% lead over its nearest competitor - a supply footprint that gives buyers few alternatives at scale.

The net income figure for Q4 of $123.1 million is nonetheless distorted by the $90 million one-time tax benefit related to the valuation allowance release. Stripping that out, non-GAAP income for Q4 was $52.9 million, compared to $51.6 million in Q4 2024 - a much more modest year-over-year gain that reflects the continued drag from DV+.

Timeline

Summary

Who: Magnite, Inc. (NASDAQ: MGNI), described by the company as the world's largest independent sell-side advertising platform, headquartered in New York City with additional principal offices in Los Angeles, Denver, London, and Sydney. Chief Executive Officer Michael Barrett and Chief Financial Officer David Day presented the results.

What: Fourth-quarter 2025 revenue of $205.4 million, up 6% year-over-year. Full-year 2025 revenue of $714.0 million, up 7%. CTV contribution ex-TAC grew 20% in Q4 (32% excluding political) to $93.6 million, representing 48% of total quarterly contribution ex-TAC. Full-year adjusted EBITDA of $232.1 million, up 18%. The company also announced a new $200 million share repurchase program and provided guidance for at least 11% contribution ex-TAC growth in 2026.

When: The earnings were reported on February 25, 2026, covering financial performance for the three months and full year ended December 31, 2025. The 10-K was audited by Deloitte & Touche LLP, whose opinion letter is dated February 25, 2026.

Where: Magnite operates an omni-channel programmatic advertising marketplace globally, processing nearly $7 billion in ad spend in 2025 across connected television, mobile, and desktop channels. The company's principal offices span North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific.

Why: The results matter for the marketing community because they document, with quarterly financial precision, the pace at which advertising budgets are migrating from traditional digital display and video into connected television. The 32% CTV growth excluding political - and management commentary that CTV crossed 50% of the business in Q1 2026 - signals a structural shift rather than a cyclical quarter. For media buyers, agencies, and publishers, the numbers illustrate where programmatic infrastructure investment and inventory relationships are most likely to generate returns as streaming becomes the dominant screen for video consumption.

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