In This Article:
(Bloomberg) -- Connected TV advertising platform MNTN Inc.’s shares climbed 65% after the company and some of its shareholders raised $187 million in an initial public offering.
Most Read from Bloomberg
-
Can Frank Gehry’s ‘Grand LA’ Make Downtown Feel Like a Neighborhood?
-
NY Private School Pleads for Donors to Stay Open After Declaring Bankruptcy
-
Chicago’s O’Hare Airport Seeks Up to $4.3 Billion of Muni Debt
-
NJ Transit Makes Deal With Engineers, Ending Three-Day Strike
Shares in the Austin-based company closed at $26.36 each on Thursday in New York, above the IPO price of $16 per share, the top of the marketed range. Trading was briefly halted for volatility after the open.
The trading gives MNTN a market value of $2 billion based on the outstanding shares listed in its filings. Accounting for employee stock options and restricted stock units, the company has a fully diluted value of about $2.7 billion.
The IPO drew orders for around 14 times the number of shares available, Founder and Chief Executive Officer Mark Douglas told Bloomberg News.
The company — which counts Hollywood actor Ryan Reynolds as its chief creative officer — and the selling shareholders priced 11.7 million shares on Wednesday. MNTN sold 8.4 million shares, and the existing stockholders sold 3.3 million shares.
Reynolds played an important role in the overall branding of the company, Douglas said. The Deadpool star presented to equity capital markets bankers at the launch of the offering last week, Douglas added.
MNTN has transferred its interest in Maximum Effort, Reynolds’ creative agency which it acquired in 2021, to an affiliate of its original owner, according to the filing. MNTN has entered a new contract with Maximum Effort to provide creative services.
Creating the Market
MNTN “created” the market for helping small and medium-sized businesses advertise on streaming TV networks, as an alternative to buying ads on social media platforms, according to Douglas.
“96% of our customers have never advertised on TV before,” the CEO said in an interview. “I don’t think there’s another company in this industry where the percentage of first-time advertisers is more than 10%,” he said.
“We provide them with a tech-heavy platform to do performance marketing on streaming TV,“ Douglas said, noting the firm had partnerships with streaming services owned by Walt Disney Co., Paramount Global and Comcast Corp.’s NBC.
Its MNTN Performance TV platform offers a suite of targeting, measurement and automated optimization technology, according to its website.