Skip to main content

The context you need, when you need it

When news breaks, you need to understand what actually matters — and what to do about it. At Vox, our mission to help you make sense of the world has never been more vital. But we can’t do it on our own.

We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. Will you support our work and become a Vox Member today?

Join now

Criteo is paying $250 million to buy e-commerce ad firm HookLogic

Like Google product listing ads, but for e-commerce sites.

Jason Del Rey
Jason Del Rey has been a business journalist for 15 years and has covered Amazon, Walmart, and the e-commerce industry for the last decade. He was a senior correspondent at Vox.

HookLogic, a startup that helps consumer brands place ads on e-commerce sites, has agreed to sell for $250 million to publicly traded ad-tech firm Criteo.

HookLogic works with retailers like Walmart, Target, Costco and Best Buy to sell sponsored ad placements on their web pages when shoppers search for a product on their sites. Consumer brands bid to place these cost-per-click ads across HookLogic’s network of e-commerce sites.

Whereas retailers buy Google Product Listing Ads to drive traffic to their sites, brands buy HookLogic ads to drive traffic to their specific products within an e-commerce site. HookLogic shares the ad revenue it collects with the e-commerce sites it partners with.

Code Commerce Series Returns to Las Vegas at Money20/20

Find out where retail and e-commerce are headed.

In an investor slide presentation, Criteo said it believes the deal will help it acquire new consumer-brand advertising customers that currently do business with HookLogic. Criteo also expects to help HookLogic expand the number of retailer websites on which it can place ads.

HookLogic expects to record gross revenue of $130 million in 2016, according to the investor presentation, more than double last year’s total. HookLogic CEO Jonathan Opdyke and his exec team will join Criteo in the deal.

The privately held company had raised around $40 million in venture funding from firms like Bain Capital Ventures, Fung Capital USA, Intel Capital and Mousse Partners. The deal is expected to be finalized in the fourth quarter of this year.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

More in Technology

Technology
The case for AI realismThe case for AI realism
Technology

AI isn’t going to be the end of the world — no matter what this documentary sometimes argues.

By Shayna Korol
Politics
OpenAI’s oddly socialist, wildly hypocritical new economic agendaOpenAI’s oddly socialist, wildly hypocritical new economic agenda
Politics

The AI company released a set of highly progressive policy ideas. There’s just one small problem.

By Eric Levitz
Future Perfect
Human bodies aren’t ready to travel to Mars. Space medicine can help.Human bodies aren’t ready to travel to Mars. Space medicine can help.
Future Perfect

Protecting astronauts in space — and maybe even Mars — will help transform health on Earth.

By Shayna Korol
Podcasts
The importance of space toilets, explainedThe importance of space toilets, explained
Podcast
Podcasts

Houston, we have a plumbing problem.

By Peter Balonon-Rosen and Sean Rameswaram
Technology
What happened when they installed ChatGPT on a nuclear supercomputerWhat happened when they installed ChatGPT on a nuclear supercomputer
Technology

How they’re using AI at the lab that created the atom bomb.

By Joshua Keating
Future Perfect
Humanity’s return to the moon is a deeply religious missionHumanity’s return to the moon is a deeply religious mission
Future Perfect

Space barons like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk don’t seem religious. But their quest to colonize outer space is.

By Sigal Samuel