• KKR is in talks to buy adtech company Integral Ad Science, sources told Business Insider.
• IAS appointed investment bank Jefferies to explore options after receiving the takeover interest.
• IAS competes closely with DoubleVerify, although it is smaller in revenue and market cap.

Private equity firm KKR is in talks to buy publicly traded adtech company Integral Ad Science, three people familiar with the process said.

It was not immediately clear whether talks were at an advanced stage and plans could change.

One of these people and an additional source said other potential buyers had also expressed interest in IAS, but did not provide additional information. All people requested anonymity to protect their business relationships; their identities are known to Business Insider.

Bloomberg reported last month that IAS had appointed investment bank Jefferies to explore its options after receiving takeover interest. IAS shares were up more than 10% on the news at the time.

KKR and IAS declined to comment.

Founded in the US in 2009, IAS provides technology that advertisers use to measure the quality and performance of their ads and help them prevent their campaigns from appearing alongside inappropriate content. It also provides publishers with solutions that help them verify that their ads are viewable, fraud-free, and placed in brand-appropriate environments.

IAS has recently signed new or expanded partnerships with major tech companies such as Google, Amazon and Reddit. In the second quarter, the company grew revenue 14% to $129 million and raised its guidance for the full year. IAS is due to report its third-quarter earnings on November 12.

A take-private deal by a private equity firm like KKR could help IAS grow further without quarterly scrutiny from Wall Street. IAS was previously privately held after Vista Equity Partners acquired it in 2018. Vista owns more than 40% of IAS, which went public in 2021.

KKR already has a footprint in the advertising industry. It owns stakes in public technology company AppLovin, corporate communications firm FGS Global and customer experience software provider Alchemer.

(KKR was also a shareholder in Business Insider’s parent company, Axel Springer. In September, Axel Springer announced that it would separate its media properties into a private company, while KKR kept the ad side of the business.)

KKR has over 600 billion dollars in assets under management.

Ted Oberwagera partner at KKR who runs its gaming, entertainment, media and sports segments told BI earlier this year that the firm wants to invest in companies that have “great teams and leaders who can navigate the rapidly changing advertising, marketing and communication landscapes”.

IAS competes fiercely with ad verification rival DoubleVerify, which is larger in annual revenue and has a $3.3 billion market cap versus IAS’s $1.99 billion at press time.

Both companies entered recently examination after a series of reports found that their advertising clients had served ads unpleasant corners of the web, such as sites with violent, racist or pornographic content, despite using the company’s brand safety software. The companies contested the methodologies and findings of these reports.

Editors have too criticized brand safety methods such as keyword blocking and blacklists – words that cause ads to be blocked on a web page – as direct tools that unfairly demonetize their content. IAS and DoubleVerify said they have refined their brand safety tools, pushing more into areas such as AI and other technologies that analyze the context and semantics of an article.