“Everything that has a beginning has an end,” says the Oracle to Keanu Reeves’ Neo in The Matrix Revolutions. Apt.
As of today, Oracle Advertising, the company’s ad business, has ceased operations, marking the end of the SaaS behemoth’s foray into adtech. All related products and services, from Moat to Oracle Contextual Intelligence, have been discontinued, and clients no longer have access to Oracle’s ad platforms, analytics tools, or data management solutions.
This shutdown was announced over the summer, and, in the end, was driven by a few factors. First, of course, is financial performance. Oracle’s ad revenue absolutely plummeted from $2 billion in 2022 to around $300 million in 2024. Market challenges, increased competition, and a fast-moving digital landscape likely influenced this decision. It ate into revenue while costs kept going up. Mounting regulatory pressures and consumer privacy concerns (cookies!) may have played a role, as well. As a result, the company exited and chose to refocus on its core, like cloud apps and salestech.
With the shutdown coming, Oracle’s customers were told to migrate to alternative solutions. Now, those platforms and companies are all fighting for Oracle’s hefty plate of leftovers.
Why This Matters:
Oracle’s exit from adtech has basically reshuffled the deck, sparking intense competition for its $300 million market share. Established vendors, agencies, and solo practitioners are all vying for the company’s former clients, leading to pricing battles and promises of better services.
Major players like DoubleVerify and IAS are well-positioned to attract Oracle’s customers, especially in media verification. (Both companies have been competing on hiring and tech, for example, to woo Moat customers.) In contextual adtech, top players like GumGum and Peer39 are also seizing the opportunity to fill market gaps and launch new capabilities to win.
For former Oracle clients, the challenge is now in finding new providers and adapting their strategies to those platforms. Will this temporarily impact their advertising effectiveness? TBD as we learn more about what business has transitioned.
Experts React:
In August, DoubleVerify subtly targeted in-market Moat customers with a website that reads: “As Oracle Advertising winds down, we understand your business may be facing a major transition. While change can be difficult, DV offers a smooth transition to superior verification services.”
The verification battle is particularly intriguing. While smaller companies may attempt to capture these budgets, Mike Sieman, CEO of Digital Remedy, predicts DoubleVerify and IAS will dominate. “What we won’t see, however, is a significant shift of these clients to smaller verification and ‘media forensic’ upstarts,” says Sieman. “While there may be some movement, the overwhelming majority will not go that route.” He highlights the size of both companies and their measurement capabilities as reasons why they’ll ultimately win.
Michelle Hulst, formerly of Oracle Data Cloud and now at GumGum, reflected on the closure in an emailed statement: “While it’s always disappointing to see the end of something you’ve been part of—especially as someone who helped build Datalogix, one of the core companies behind Oracle Advertising—this also opens up new opportunities. With advertisers needing to rethink their strategies, there’s a great chance for forward-looking solutions like advanced contextual advertising to take the spotlight. The shutdown of Oracle Advertising may close one door, but it opens several others for innovation and progress in advertising.” (GumGum has also published a blog post to support transitioning Oracle clients.)
Our Take:
The next few months will be key as companies compete to not just secure Oracle’s ad business, but to keep it. There will undoubtedly be challenges as advertisers and agency customers transition to new services. Who will retain the business? Who can manage the influx of new customers effectively? What promises were made that will be too much to fulfill? By January, perhaps we’ll have a clearer picture of who is truly capitalizing on the fallout from Oracle Advertising’s shutdown.
Side note: adtech requires serious commitment. Success demands significant investment in both technology and talent. Oracle’s half-hearted approach is a cautionary tale, especially as other nontraditional media and adtech companies try to build their own ad businesses.
