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Organization, Description of Business and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies
3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2025
Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]  
Organization, Description of Business and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies
1. Organization, Description of Business and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies
Organization and Description of Business
Outbrain Inc. (together with its subsidiaries, the “new Teads,” the “Company,” “we,” “our” or “us”), now combining the offerings of Outbrain and Teads, is a leading omnichannel advertising platform focused on driving outcomes across the Open Internet. The Company, operating under the new Teads brand, is headquartered in New York, New York with various wholly-owned subsidiaries, including in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. The Common Stock has traded on The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC (“Nasdaq”) since its initial public offering on July 23, 2021 under the “OB” ticker symbol.
The Company generates revenue from advertisers purchasing media owner inventory through its platforms. The new Teads is the omnichannel outcomes platform for the Open Internet, driving full-funnel results for marketers across premium media. With a focus on meaningful business outcomes, the combined company ensures value is driven with every media dollar by leveraging predictive AI technology to connect quality media, beautiful brand creative, and context-driven addressability and measurement. The Company’s platform provides advertisements on media owners’ online properties. The Company generates revenue from advertisers through consumer engagements with advertisements that it delivers across a variety of third-party media owners’ online properties, including through CTV. Advertising campaigns are priced using various models, including cost per click (“CPC”), cost per thousand impressions (CPM) or other actions, such as a cost per view (CPV) based on a number of completed video views. Accordingly, revenues are recognized when an action associated with an advertisement occurs, whether that be an ad is clicked on, displayed or viewed by the end user. The Company pays traffic acquisition costs to its media owner partners on whose digital properties the advertisements are shown.
Basis of Presentation
The accompanying condensed consolidated financial statements were prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States of America (“U.S. GAAP”) for interim financial information and are unaudited. Certain information and disclosures normally included in consolidated financial statements prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP have been condensed or omitted. Accordingly, these condensed consolidated financial statements should be read in conjunction with the Company’s audited consolidated financial statements and related notes included in the Company’s 2024 Form 10-K.
On February 3, 2025, the Company completed the previously announced acquisition (“Acquisition”) of TEADS, a private limited liability company (société à responsabilité limitée) incorporated and existing under the laws of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (“Teads”). As such, the accompanying condensed consolidated financial statements of the Company include the results of operations for legacy Teads from February 3, 2025 through March 31, 2025. As a result of the Acquisition, the financial information presented as of and for the three months ended March 31, 2025 is not directly comparable to our financial information presented for the corresponding prior year periods.
Use of Estimates
The preparation of condensed consolidated financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and related disclosures as of the date of the condensed consolidated financial statements and the reported amounts of revenue and expenses during the reporting period. Estimates and judgments are based on historical information and on various other assumptions that the Company believes are reasonable under the circumstances. Estimates and assumptions made in the accompanying condensed consolidated financial statements include, but are not limited to, the allowance for credit losses, sales allowance, software development costs eligible for capitalization, valuation of deferred tax assets, the useful lives of property and equipment, the useful lives and fair value of intangible assets, valuation of goodwill, the fair value of stock-based awards, and the recognition and measurement of income tax uncertainties and other contingencies. Actual results could differ materially from these estimates.
Reclassifications
Certain reclassifications have been made to the prior periods’ financial information in order to conform to the current period’s presentation. These reclassifications primarily included the reclassification of publisher obligations of $57.4 million to accounts payable, as part of accounting policy alignment between legacy Outbrain and Teads. This obligation was previously recorded within accrued and other current liabilities in the Company’s consolidated balance sheet as of December 31, 2024. This reclassification had no impact on the Company’s current or total liabilities, or any other financial statement line items.
Revenue Recognition
The Company recognizes revenues when it transfers control of promised services directly to its customers, in an amount that reflects the consideration to which the Company expects to be entitled to in exchange for those services. The Company recognizes revenue pursuant to the five-step framework contained in ASC 606: (i) identify the contract with a client; (ii) identify the performance obligations in the contract, including whether they are distinct in the context of the contract; (iii) determine the transaction price, including the constraint on variable consideration; (iv) allocate the transaction price to the performance obligations in the contract; and (v) recognize revenue as the Company satisfies the performance obligations.
The Company generates revenue primarily from advertisers (and/or through the media agencies that represent such advertisers) through user engagement with the ads placed on media partners’ web pages and mobile applications. The Company’s platform delivers ads to end-users that appear as links to articles and videos on media owners’ and CTV partners’ sites.
The Company’s customers include brands, performance marketers and other advertisers, which are collectively referred to as its advertisers, each of which contract for use of its services primarily through insertion orders or through self-service tools, allowing advertisers to establish budgets for their advertising campaigns. Advertising campaigns are primarily billed on a monthly basis. The Company’s payment terms generally range from 30 to 60 days.
Advertising campaigns are priced using various models, including cost per click (“CPC”), cost per thousand impressions (CPM) or other actions, such as a cost per view (CPV) based on a number of completed video views. Accordingly, revenues are recognized when an action associated with an advertisement occurs, whether that be an ad is clicked on, displayed or viewed by the end user.
Variable consideration, including allowances, discounts, refunds, credits, incentives, or other price concessions, is estimated and recorded at the time that related revenue is recognized. Advance payments from advertisers for future services represent contract liabilities and are recorded as deferred revenue in the Company’s consolidated balance sheets.
The determination of whether revenue should be reported on a gross or a net basis involves judgment. In general, the Company acts as a principal on behalf of its advertisers and revenue is recognized gross of any costs that it remits to the media partners. In these cases, the Company determined that it controls the advertising inventory before it is transferred to its advertisers. The Company’s control is evidenced by its ability to monetize the advertising inventory before it is transferred to its advertisers. For those revenue arrangements where the Company does not control the advertising inventory before it is transferred to its advertisers, the Company is the agent and recognizes revenue on a net basis. The Company recognizes revenue net of applicable sales taxes.
Contract Balances. There were no contract assets as of March 31, 2025 or December 31, 2024. Contract liabilities primarily relate to advance payments and consideration received from customers. As of March 31, 2025 and December 31, 2024, the Company’s contract liabilities were recorded as deferred revenue in its consolidated balance sheets. See Note 16 for disaggregation of the Company’s revenue based on geography of where the Company’s marketers are physically located.
Cost of Revenue
Traffic Acquisition Costs. Traffic acquisition costs consist of amounts the Company owes to media partners for the purchase of or use of inventory. The Company incurs costs with its media partners. which may be publishers or third-party intermediaries, in the period in which certain actions, such as click-throughs, impressions or views, occur. Such costs due to media partners are based on the media partners’ contractual revenue share, a CPM model or guaranteed rates of payment based on certain media partner conditions. In some circumstances, the Company incurs costs based on a guaranteed minimum payment, which may be based on either impressions, page views or a fixed amount if the partner reaches certain performance targets, in exchange for guaranteed placement on specified portions of the media owners’ online properties. Traffic acquisition costs also include amounts payable to media partners whose supply is purchased programmatically.
In some instances, the Company may make upfront payments to media owners in connection with long-term contracts. The Company capitalizes these advance payments under these agreements if specific capitalization criteria have been met. The capitalization criteria includes the existence of future economic benefits to the Company, the existence of legally enforceable recoverability language (e.g., early termination clauses), management’s ability and intent to enforce the recoverability language and the ability to generate future earnings from the agreement in excess of amounts deferred. Capitalized amounts are amortized as traffic acquisition costs over the shorter of the period of contractual recoverability or the corresponding period of economic benefit. Amounts not yet paid are accrued systematically based on the Company’s estimate of user engagement.
Other Cost of Revenue. Other cost of revenue includes costs related to the management of data centers, hosting fees, data connectivity costs, research and insight costs, and depreciation and amortization. Cost of revenue also includes the amortization of capitalized software that is developed or obtained for internal use associated with the Company’s revenue-generating technologies. Additionally, other cost of revenue includes amortization of intangible assets related to developed technology acquired by the Company and used in its revenue-generating efforts.
Certain Risks and Concentrations
Financial instruments that potentially subject the Company to concentrations of credit risk consist of cash and cash equivalents, restricted cash, and accounts receivable. The Company’s cash and cash equivalents and restricted cash are generally invested in high-credit quality financial instruments with both banks and financial institutions to reduce the amount of exposure to any single financial institution.
The Company generally does not require collateral to secure accounts receivable, with the exception of certain customers with higher potential credit risk who are required to prepay for their campaigns. No single advertiser accounted for 10% or more of the Company’s total revenue for the three months ended March 31, 2025 or 2024, or 10% or more of its gross accounts receivable balance as of March 31, 2025 and December 31, 2024. During the three months ended March 31, 2025 and 2024, none of the Company’s media owners accounted for 10% of its total traffic acquisition costs.
Segment Information
The Company has one operating and reporting segment. The Company’s chief operating decision maker is its Chief Executive Officer who makes resource allocation decisions and assesses performance based on financial information presented on a consolidated basis.
New Accounting Pronouncements
Under the JOBS Act, the Company meets the definition of an emerging growth company (“EGC”) and can delay adopting new or revised accounting standards issued subsequent to the enactment of the JOBS Act until such time as those standards would otherwise apply to private companies. The Company has elected to use this extended transition period for complying with new or revised accounting standards that have different effective dates for public and private companies until the Company is no longer an EGC or until the Company affirmatively and irrevocably opts out of the extended transition period. Based on the anticipated total gross revenue of the Company, the Company expects that it will cease to be an emerging growth company as of December 31, 2025.
Recently Issued Accounting Pronouncements
In December 2023, the FASB issued ASU 2023-09, “Income Taxes (Topic 740): Improvements to Income Tax Disclosures” (“ASU 2023-09”). ASU 2023-09 is focused on increased visibility into specific income tax components, requiring disclosures of specific categories and a greater disaggregation of information by jurisdiction within the effective tax rate reconciliation and income taxes paid disclosures. ASU 2023-09 is effective for our annual periods beginning January 1, 2025, or our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025, with early adoption permitted. The Company is in the process of evaluating the impact of ASU 2023-09 on its tax-related disclosures.
In November 2024, the FASB issued ASU 2024-03, “Income Statement - Reporting Comprehensive Income - Expense Disaggregation Disclosures” (“ASU 2024-03”). ASU 2024-03 requires disclosures about certain costs and expenses, including but not limited to, purchases of inventory; employee compensation; depreciation; intangible asset amortization; and selling expenses. The ASU is required to be applied prospectively and is effective for annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2026, and interim periods beginning after December 15, 2027. The Company is in the process of evaluating the impact of ASU 2024-03 on its audited consolidated financial statements.
See Note 1 to the Company’s audited consolidated financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2024 in the Company’s 2024 Form 10-K for a complete disclosure of the Company’s significant accounting policies.