Bankrupt ad tech outfit Sizmek has finalised the sale of Peer39, its ad management and distribution platform, to a group of advertising industry veterans. Peer39 will now operate as an independent company.

The standalone company will be led by Mario Diez, most recently CEO of PointRoll, who will serve as CEO. Alex White, who led Peer39’s product and account teams for several years, will serve as COO. Peer39 will maintain its existing relationships with brands, agencies, and tech platforms.

“For years, those of us who have been selling different kinds of targeting and creative, especially in programmatic, have regarded Peer39 as an underutilised asset with a ton of potential,” said Diez. “Contextual targeting is what advertising media has always been designed around, capitalising on users’ self-selected, contextual interest, and less on their profile or behaviour.”

The group of advertising industry veterans has been in negotiations with Sizmek since it began selling off its assets. The acquisition is completely separate of Amazon’s purchase of Sizmek’s ad server and dynamic creative optimisation (DCO) products and Zeta Global Holding’s $36m purchase of the beleaguered company’s demand side platform (DSP) and data management platform (DMP).