“This could be a significant moment for the CTV advertising ecosystem, even if the MNTN itself is still relatively small in the large diagram of Adtech,” said Karsten Weide, principal and chief analyst of W Media Research. “They have a few strong things for them: the support of Morgan Stanley gives the IPO a certain institutional credibility, and the cachet of Ryan Reynolds as a chief of creation continues to generate attention far beyond the bubble of the industry.”

But as well as all this seems for Mntn, his fate is far from being sealed. At 16, it is a veteran in terms of advertising technology but who hangs behind his peers. The Trade Desk and Criteo had already crossed the revenue bar of $ 1 billion at this stage of their life cycle. MNTN, on the other hand, draws $ 225 million.

“This [the IPO] is a great revealer on the market which strengthens the idea that advertising technology companies are not equal insofar as those who are doing well are rooted in performance, “said Brian Mandelbaum, CEO of Attain, a consumer data platform focused on results.

Here is a more in-depth examination of this stroll on the rope, based on the deposit of the S-1 of the company with the SEC.

Since 2020, the MNTN has shown a leap in income and customer growth of 769%, on the momentum of the CTV and the advertising focused on performance. It’s impressive. But the brilliant fades with a net loss of $ 32.9 million in 2024. Yes, the adjusted Ebitda arrived positive at 38.8 million dollars (against 32.5 million dollars the previous year), which suggests that it is always more outside the operation, but it is not enough to silence the skeptics.

And skeptics have it. The questions around the inheritance of MNTN, in particular his previous Steelhouse chapter – and the current concerns concerning transparency have not disappeared. In the today’s advertising technology market – where drainage is no longer sold – this type of luggage could weigh heavily with institutional investors.

For the moment, however, the market buys what MTNN sells – and this sends a clear signal to investment capital companies. The EP has long been the default output for ad tech startups, generally offering seven to 10 times the adjusted Baiia. MNTN, on the other hand, struck the public commercial market to an amazing Ebitda 32 times adjusted – a multiple which brings him closer to the commercial office that a typical intermediate market player.

“This [the MNTN IPO] Could put a key in progress with regard to investor investors in investment for advertising technology, “said former director of the MNTN, Dan Larkman, now CEO of CTV advertising partner, Keynes Digital.” Even if it comes down to EBITDA 30 times, which changes the vision of the EP company to try to pay seven to 10 times the EBITDA. »»

A recalibration of this magnitude could move the whole trajectory for a band of technology companies of the medium size. If public investors are again willing to reward growth – especially in the warmer corners of the market like CTV – the IPO window begins to look less like a last B plan and more like a viable, even preferable outcome.

But only for those who have their stomachs for this. Becoming a public is not a cake walk. It is a glove of competing stakeholders, of a tireless examination and practically no margin of error. This is why so few advertising technology companies, including Trade Desk and Criteo, have really stuck the landing.

However, if MNTN can manage the heat, keep the line and deliver to upcoming neighborhoods, this could change the calculation for others. After all, the risks are steep, but the fact of the rise.

Just ask a CEO of anonymous advertising technology who recently moved to New York to be closer to the action when they are preparing to take their own shooting.

“He [the CEO] Also told me that last fall that the objective was to start this process in the near future, “said an advertising director who exchanged anonymity for franchise on these plans.

Again, “in the near future” is vague enough to extend from the next quarter to next year. And this is the tension: the return of the IPO of advertising technology is far from guaranteed. The fundamentals of solid companies do not mean much when the markets on which they count are anything but. An agitated macroeconomic perspective, shaken by commercial wars, changing prices and global uncertainty, has consumer expenses that were broken. When this happens, advertising dollars tend to follow.

“The MNTN is not about to challenge the great DSPs as DV360 or the office,” said Weide de W Media Research. “The functionality is much more rationalized by the design for small advertisers, and may not be rich enough for functionality for marketing specialists in larger advertisers. But where it could create pressure, it is one of the smallest players of demand such as Stackadapt or the beeswax of the free wheel.”

Needless to say, if there is a moment to make the jump, that’s it.

There is more maturity in the vision of the public market for advertising technology than ten years ago. At the time, the media threshing exceeded clarity. Companies have become public on arbitration games and large margins on advertising expenses, with little transparency in the way the sausage was made. The bubble bursts and the scars of rocky stock market IPOs. This time feels different.

“Investors have better market management than at the time, but I still don’t think they know how to promote it properly,” said Larkman de Keynes Digital. “Advertising technology companies do not have the full ecosystem like Google or Meta. They just control a piece of infrastructure, which makes it more difficult for investors to understand where the value is – and how the price accordingly.”