Ad tech firm Viant has acquired itself from Meredith. Viant’s founder brothers, Tim and Chris Vanderhook, already held on to 40 per cent of the company and have now picked up the remaining 60 per cent from the media giant.

Viant was acquired by Time Inc. in 2016 as part of plans to improve its targeting and measurement capabilities. This move was bolstered a year later when Viant bought cross-channel programmatic ad platform Adelphic. Then, in 2018, Meredith completed a $2.8bn acquisition of Time, picking up Viant in the process and choosing to shut down its UK operations shortly after.

“We are pleased to have sold our equity in Viant to Tim and Chris Vanderhook, who have been excellent stewards of the business,” said Meredith chief development officer John Zieser. “We look forward to working with the Viant team on joint business initiatives going forward.”

Meredith has been looking to sell off several of Time’s assets to pay off its debts and Viant’s sale back to its founders is just one of those instances. It has already sold Time, Fortune, Sports Illustrated, Money, and Time Inc. UK, while still looking to sell Xumo and FanSided.

Viant’s shift back to independence – something that’s becoming somewhat of a rarity – comes just weeks after streaming TV company Roku acquired Dataxu for $150m.