Xandr

Xandr, Inc. (pronounced "Zander") was the advertising and analytics subsidiary of Microsoft, which operates an online platform, Community, for buying and selling consumer-centric digital advertising.[1]

In December 2021, AT&T sold Xandr (including AppNexus and Clypd) to Microsoft for an undisclosed price.[2] The acquisition was completed in June 2022.

In 2023, Microsoft retired the Xandr name and consolidated the business under its Microsoft Advertising brand.[3]

In 2025, Microsoft announced that it would shut down its buy-side Invest product in early 2026.[4]

History

Following its June 2018 acquisition of AppNexus,[5] Xandr was formed by AT&T to construct a national TV advertising marketplace.

Xandr was launched on September 25, 2018, at its inaugural AT&T Relevance Conference, in Santa Barbara, California. The name "Xandr" was chosen in honor of its parent company's founder, Alexander Graham Bell.[6][7]

In June 2019, Xandr rebranded its AppNexus DSP, launching Xandr Invest, to serve as its central ad-buying hub.[8][9]

On October 18, 2019, Xandr acquired Massachusetts-based Clypd, an audience-based sales platform for television advertising.[10][11]

On April 30, 2020, Xandr was folded into WarnerMedia.[12]

Rumors and speculation spread in 2020 that AT&T was seeking to sell and offload Xandr, along with DirecTV and Crunchyroll. The reasoning was twofold: first, AT&T took on immense debt to purchase WarnerMedia, and any non-core asset sales would help pay off that debt burden. Secondly, Xandr was inherently compromised by its association with AT&T and HBO Max, as many would-be advertisers were reluctant to use what is essentially a competitor for their ad buys. As such, it might be more lucrative on its own.[13]

On May 17, 2021, it was announced that WarnerMedia would be merged with Discovery, Inc. to form a new publicly traded company known as Warner Bros. Discovery, but that the Xandr business would not be included in the transaction and would remain a division of AT&T.[14] On December 21, 2021, AT&T announced that they had agreed to sell Xandr (including AppNexus and Clypd) to Microsoft for an undisclosed price, subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory reviews.[2]

On June 6, 2022, Microsoft completed the acquisition of Xandr to bolster its advertising and retail media business, for about $1 billion.[15]

Leadership

Until it was folded into Microsoft Advertising, Xandr was led by Mike Welch,[16] after the departure in March 2020 by former GroupM North America CEO Brian Lesser, who was appointed chief executive officer of AT&T advertising and analytics in 2017.[17] Kirk McDonald, who served as interim CEO following Lesser's departure,[18] moved to GroupM, a subsidiary of WPP, in August 2020.[19]

Operations

In May 2019, Xandr launched Community, its new video marketplace[20] that connects advertisers, publishers, and consumer media brands,[21] including Warner Bros. Discovery platforms: CNN, TNT, TruTV, B/R Live, and Otter Media. Other media on the Community platform includes Vice Media, Hearst Communications, Newsy, Philo, Tubi, and Xumo,[22][23] Vudu, and Bloomberg.[24]

The fee-transparent,[25] consumer-centric Xandr advertising model combines data, AT&T’s then newly acquired WarnerMedia content, AppNexus, and other proprietary advertising technology, to integrate with AT&T’s consumer network,[6][7] creating the first personalized advertising of its kind, with different commercials being delivered to different viewers simultaneously.[26]

During its first year, Xandr’s revenue was mainly derived from DirecTV sales. The company has approximately 1800 employees,[27] including 60 in Europe.[21]

In 2023 Netzpolitik.org analyzed an inventory file of Xandr[28] and described how it categorizes people in an article series[29] and a talk at the Chaos Communication Congress.[30]

External links