Money, markets & M&A quiz
Where the ad dollar goes, how ad tech companies report revenue, what moves their stocks and why the industry keeps consolidating. Ten advanced questions for people who read earnings reports. advanced · 10 questions
Question 1 of 10Score 0
In the 2020 ISBA/PwC programmatic supply chain study, roughly what share of advertiser spend reached publishers?
All questions with answers
- In the 2020 ISBA/PwC programmatic supply chain study, roughly what share of advertiser spend reached publishers?
Answer: About 51%. The landmark study found only about half, 51%, reached publishers, with the rest going to intermediaries and an untraceable remainder. That gap is what people mean by the ad tech tax. - What was the 'unknown delta' in the ISBA/PwC research?
Answer: Spend that could not be attributed to any supply-chain participant, about 15% in 2020 and about 3% in the 2022 follow-up. The unknown delta was money that simply could not be traced through the chain. It is often misquoted as fraud, but it was a data-matching gap, and it shrank sharply once data sharing improved. - A DSP processes $100M of client media spend and books $20M of revenue from fees. What is its take rate?
Answer: 20%. Take rate = platform revenue ÷ gross spend = $20M ÷ $100M = 20%. The $100M is spend that flows through the platform, not its revenue. - Two ad tech firms with identical economics report very different revenue. What is the most likely reason?
Answer: One reports gross revenue as principal, the other net revenue as agent. Under accounting rules a firm that controls the media books gross revenue, including what it passes to publishers, while an agent books only its fee. Compare on net or ex-TAC figures instead. - What does 'revenue ex-TAC' remove from reported revenue?
Answer: Traffic acquisition costs, the money paid on to publishers or partners for the inventory. Revenue ex-TAC strips out what the company pays to acquire traffic, leaving what it really keeps, close to Contribution ex-TAC. It makes a gross-reporting firm comparable to a net-reporting one. - Why do analysts treat adjusted EBITDA with caution?
Answer: It usually excludes stock-based compensation and other costs that are real, recurring expenses. Adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP figure management defines itself. Excluding stock-based pay can flatter profitability because shareholders still bear that cost through dilution. - How does supply path optimization tend to reshape the SSP market?
Answer: Buyers concentrate spend on fewer SSPs, so smaller ones lose share and consolidation follows. Supply path optimization rewards scale and directness, so volume flows to the biggest, most connected SSPs. It is one reason SSPs merge, as when Rubicon Project and Telaria formed Magnite. - Which SEC filing contains a US-listed company's annual audited financial statements?
Answer: Form 10-K. The Form 10-K is the annual report with audited statements. The Form 10-Q is quarterly and unaudited, and an 8-K reports material events such as deals or results releases. - What happened to Integral Ad Science (IAS) in 2025?
Answer: Private equity firm Novacap took it private for about $1.9 billion, and it was delisted from Nasdaq. Novacap's all-cash take-private deal of IAS closed in December 2025 at $10.30 a share. DoubleVerify remains its main listed rival, not its merger partner. - An ad tech stock falls 30% on the day it beats revenue expectations. What is the most likely reason?
Answer: It gave weak guidance for the next quarter or year. Markets price the future, so guidance below consensus can outweigh a strong quarter in an earnings report. A beat is backward-looking; the forecast is what moves the valuation.