Viant acquires Lockr to enhance first-party data capabilities

Viant Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: DSP) acquired Lockr, a first-party data collaboration platform, on March 3, 2025. The transaction, announced six days ago during Viant's fourth quarter 2024 earnings call, represents a strategic move in the programmatic advertising space focused on addressing identity and addressability challenges.

Lockr's platform enables content owners to collect, enrich, and activate first-party data. The acquisition comes at a time when the advertising technology sector continues adjusting to privacy changes affecting digital identity solutions.

"Addressability is the future of advertising and Viant's acquisition of Lockr is expected to accelerate its arrival across the programmatic ecosystem," said Tim Vanderhook, CEO of Viant Technology, according to the company's press release. "The company's founder, Keith Petri, is a well known leader in the AdTech industry, having spent 15 years dedicated to advances in data management."

Petri will continue leading Lockr as its CEO within the Viant organization. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, though it follows Viant's November 2024 acquisition of IRIS.TV, a global content data platform built for Connected TV (CTV).

Technical implications for publishers

The acquisition addresses technical friction points in data integration. According to Viant's announcement, publishers and content owners partnering with Lockr can integrate their first-party data and enable multiple alternative ID partners in the programmatic ecosystem through a single implementation.

Currently, data integrations typically require significant engineering resources, software deployment, and maintenance for each integration. Lockr's platform aims to reduce this burden by providing a unified integration point.

"There is a lot of friction in matching the Viant Household ID with publisher identity," said Chris Vanderhook, co-founder and COO of Viant, during the company's earnings call. "The company's proprietary identity graph uses the household rather than individual users as the atomic unit, but that can be difficult to reconcile to addressable individuals through the maze of data vendors, clean room services and alternative IDs."

Lockr's technology enables the application of first-party data as a signal in the bid-stream, which may improve addressability while complying with applicable privacy laws. This capability could become increasingly important as third-party cookies continue to face deprecation across browsers.

The Lockr acquisition occurs against a backdrop of mixed Q4 performance across ad tech companies. While some firms reported persistent dampened demand and declining CPMs (cost per thousand impressions) in November and December 2024, Viant reported strong results.

Viant earned $90 million in total revenue in Q4 2024 and $289 million for the full year, representing 40% and 30% year-over-year growth respectively. The company's net income more than doubled from Q4 2023, though it remains narrowly profitable at $7.7 million in Q4 2024.

According to James Hercher of AdExchanger, "Viant's business indexes highly to CTV, where CPMs and spend were not depressed." Tim Vanderhook noted during the earnings call that the ad downturn affecting others wasn't due to macroeconomics or the election, but rather "poor CPMs in display inventory that relies on faulty cookie-based, last-touch attribution."

Despite Viant's strong earnings report, the market reaction to the Lockr acquisition was lukewarm. Laura Martin, Needham's tech and media equity analyst, questioned the deal during the earnings call, asking for more detail because she "doesn't understand the logic," and questioned why publishers would give their data directly to a demand-side platform (DSP).

Following the announcement, Viant's stock reportedly dipped 12% in after-hours trading, according to AdExchanger.

Data strategy and competitive positioning

The acquisition represents Viant's second relatively small acquisition in recent months, with both Lockr and IRIS.TV focused on sell-side technologies targeting publishers and content creators.

Tim Vanderhook emphasized that the Lockr acquisition would help accelerate adoption of Viant's own ID solutions in programmatic buys. Both the Viant Household ID and the IRIS ID (from acquiring IRIS.TV) will be easier to use in the bidstream through Lockr's technology.

Viant plans to make Lockr's solutions open to the entire ecosystem, including other alternative identifiers. "Similar to IRIS_ID, we plan to make Lockr's solutions open to the entire ecosystem including other alternative identifiers, as Viant is committed to helping the broader open internet succeed," Tim Vanderhook stated.

This approach positions Viant in direct competition with other identity solutions providers while potentially increasing the adoption of its own Household ID technology.

Publisher benefits and ecosystem implications

For publishers, the potential benefit comes from simplification of data integration processes. Lockr's platform allows publishers to integrate first-party data once and automatically enable various alternative ID partners in the programmatic ecosystem.

This could be particularly valuable for publishers looking to monetize their audiences across channels including Connected TV, where Viant reported that ad spend increased over 40% and accounted for over 40% of ad spend on their platform in FY 2024.

Publishers may now be able to use their first-party data more efficiently in advertising without the typical engineering burden. According to Viant's earnings presentation, "Lockr enables businesses to build a data repository they own and can use seamlessly across AdTech, MarTech, and data systems to drive consumer engagement and advertising outcomes."

The emphasis on publisher enablement aligns with Viant's Direct Access product, which aims to bypass traditional supply-side platforms (SSPs) by connecting directly with publishers.

Future outlook

Viant's Q1 2025 guidance projects continued growth, with revenue expected between $65-68 million (25% year-over-year growth at midpoint) and contribution ex-TAC (a non-GAAP measure of revenue less traffic acquisition costs) between $40.5-42.5 million (22% year-over-year growth at midpoint).

The company had $205 million in cash and cash equivalents with no debt as of December 31, 2024, providing resources for potential additional acquisitions and strategic investments.

As the advertising industry continues adapting to changing identity and privacy requirements, Viant's acquisitions of Lockr and IRIS.TV demonstrate a strategic focus on alternative identity solutions beyond traditional third-party cookies.

Industry observers will be watching how effectively Lockr's technology integrates with Viant's existing identity solutions and whether publishers adopt the combined offering at scale.

Timeline of recent Viant developments

• March 3, 2025: Viant announces acquisition of Lockr during Q4 2024 earnings call
• February 2025: Lockr acquisition completed (specific date not disclosed)
• November 2024: Viant acquires IRIS.TV, a global content data platform for CTV
• Throughout 2024: Viant expands partnership with TransUnion to include TruAudience identity data, lifting Household ID match rates to 95% of U.S. adults
• 2024: Viant launches ViantAI, described as "the first fully autonomous advertising software platform"
• Q4 2024: Viant reports 40% year-over-year revenue growth and $7.7 million net income
• Full Year 2024: Viant reports CTV ad spend increased over 40%, accounting for over 40% of ad spend on platform