Yahoo has acquired programmatic video advertising platform BrightRoll for $640m (£402m) in cash.

The deal is intended to dramatically strengthen Yahoos video ad offering by leveraging BrightRoll’s platform and publisher relationships, giving Yahoo the largest set of video inventory in the US across desktop, mobile and connected TV.

“Video, along with mobile, social, and native, is driving a surge in digital advertising. Here at Yahoo, video is one of the largest growth opportunities, and BrightRoll is a terrific, strategic and financially compelling fit for our video advertising business,” said Marissa Mayer, Yahoo CEO.

“As with every acquisition, we have been extremely thoughtful about our approach to the video advertising space. This acquisition will accelerate the growth of both companies – we can help BrightRoll scale to even more advertisers globally and they can bring their tremendous platform offering to Yahoo’s advertisers. The combination builds positive momentum for Yahoo’s broader display advertising business in 2015.”

BrightRoll is expected to achieve net revenues of over $100m this year, handles approximately 2bn requests per day, and counts among its clients 87 of the AdAge Top 100 US advertisers.

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