Cadent, a predictive advertising company, has appointed Taly El-Zmetr as chief operating officer in a newly created role. The appointment signals Cadent's focus on operational scale and enterprise-level client service as it experiences rapid market growth. El-Zmetr brings over 25 years of experience in global strategy and operations. Most recently, she served as vice president of operations and client services at Walmart Connect, where she developed operational infrastructure during a period of significant growth. She previously held senior leadership positions at Condé Nast and Pandora. In her new role, El-Zmetr will oversee strategic alignment of solutions, operations and partnerships across Cadent, ensuring seamless integration of data, inventory and measurement for major advertisers. Cadent's platform uses 22,000 AI-driven models to orchestrate advertising outcomes across multiple platforms.

Cadent, a predictive advertising company, has announced that 100% of its SSP's CTV supply paths are direct, as validated by Jounce Media. This significantly exceeds the industry benchmark of 75% and establishes a new standard for programmatic CTV inventory. Cadent Inventory Manager implements rigorous supply onboarding, only integrating CTV partners that Jounce classifies as direct paths to premium inventory. The platform restricts CTV providers to approved bundle IDs, protecting advertisers from inventory reselling. With CTV ad spending forecast to reach $55 billion by 2027, according to eMarketer, Cadent's approach ensures transparent buying paths and eliminates unnecessary fees. The company processes 200 billion impression opportunities daily, connecting advertisers to over 125 million households across leading publishers including DIRECTV Advertising, DISH Media and LG Ad Solutions.

Cadent acquires YouTube advertising company VuePlanner. The year may be almost over, but there's still plenty of time for some last minute M&A news. On Tuesday, TV advertising company Cadent announced the acquisition of VuePlanner, which specializes in contextual advertising and media planning for YouTube. Neither company would disclose an official amount. The deal has been in development since April of this year. With the inclusion of VuePlanner's 35+ employees, the acquisition will also bring Cadent's overall headcount to roughly 640 people, said Cadent CEO Nick Troiano. The news marks Cadent's third acquisition and fourth M&A deal in as many as three years. In 2023, the company bought EMX's SSP technology in a bankruptcy auction, just a few months before getting itself acquired by private equity firm Novacap for $600 million. Last year, Cadent also spent $324 million acquiring AdTheorent, a performance-based DSP that represented a further push on Cadent's part to become a more omnichannel marketing company. According to Troiano, increased media fragmentation is causing buyers and agencies to seek out more consolidated solutions - or what he referred to as "value-added, single places to play." Given Cadent's primary competency is still in video, bringing VuePlanner into the fold makes for a "seamless, natural partnership," added Troiano. As an early member of YouTube's Measurement Program, VuePlanner will allow for the expansion of Cadent's existing video reach, which currently includes linear TV, CTV and online video (OLV). AdExchanger daily. Get its editors' roundup delivered to your inbox every weekday. Daily roundup. After all, YouTube is a huge part of the TV ecosystem these days. Last year, the platform earned $36.15 billion in revenue, and Nielsen Gauge data suggests it has accounted for anywhere from 10% to 13% of all TV viewing in 2025. "Most marketers and agencies know that they need a YouTube component," said VuePlanner CEO and co-founder John Cobb. "So we're very much complementary, as an additive piece, to what Cadent's total video strategy is." On the other side of the transaction, becoming part of Cadent will provide VuePlanner an opportunity to continue scaling its business, said Cobb, as well as greater access to Cadent's larger (and, best of all, mostly non-overlapping) customer base. In the short term, Cobb will continue to run VuePlanner as a separate business unit, both Troiano and Cobb confirmed. Over the next six to nine months, the two companies will also explore ways to integrate VuePlanner into Cadent's total video-based solution, with the goal of being as seamless as possible for both sets of clients. Similarly, neither leadership team anticipates that any kind of downsizing or consolidation will take place during the acquisition process - which feels like good news for an industry recently hit by 4,000 jobs' worth of layoffs from the Omnicom-IPG merger. Instead, Cadent and VuePlanner will focus efforts on cross-training their teams and cross-selling both offerings to one another's clients. Additionally, said Troiano, Cadent is actively hiring new talent across several parts of the business. "Overall, this is a big investment strategy for us," said Troiano. "This is about strategic opportunities and growth."