Xandr
Former advertising-technology and analytics company that operated digital advertising marketplaces and was later integrated into Microsoft Advertising.
Last updated October 16, 2026
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Overview
Xandr was an advertising-technology and analytics business created by AT&T in 2018 after AT&T acquired AppNexus. Its purpose was to combine programmatic advertising infrastructure, audience data, television inventory, and AT&T-owned consumer and media assets into a more integrated marketplace for buying and selling digital and video advertising. The company’s name was pronounced “Zander” and was selected as a reference to Alexander Graham Bell, the founder of AT&T. Xandr formally launched on September 25, 2018, at AT&T’s Relevance Conference in Santa Barbara, California. The business was intended to support a national television advertising marketplace while also serving the broader digital advertising ecosystem. Its operating model brought together AppNexus technology, AT&T data and distribution assets, and advertising inventory associated with AT&T’s media properties. The company promoted the ability to use audience information to deliver different commercials to different viewers at the same time, a model associated with addressable and programmatic television advertising. In May 2019, Xandr introduced Community, a video advertising marketplace connecting advertisers, publishers, and consumer-media brands. The platform was associated with inventory from media organizations including CNN, TNT, truTV, B/R Live, Otter Media, Vice Media, Hearst Communications, Newsy, Philo, Tubi, Xumo, Vudu, and Bloomberg. Xandr’s business therefore extended beyond a conventional advertising agency: it provided infrastructure and marketplaces through which advertisers could access inventory and publishers could monetize audiences. In June 2019, the company rebranded AppNexus’s demand-side platform as Xandr Invest. Invest became Xandr’s central buy-side product, allowing advertisers and agencies to plan, purchase, and optimize campaigns across digital and video inventory. In October 2019, Xandr expanded its television capabilities by acquiring Clypd, a Massachusetts-based platform focused on audience-based television advertising sales. Xandr was folded into WarnerMedia in April 2020. The move placed the advertising business closer to AT&T’s media assets, although the company remained part of a wider corporate structure that was being reassessed. During 2020 and 2021, reports and market speculation described Xandr as a possible non-core asset that AT&T might sell, alongside other businesses, as the telecommunications group sought to manage debt and simplify its portfolio. The proposed WarnerMedia combination with Discovery did not include Xandr; the advertising business remained with AT&T. On December 21, 2021, AT&T announced an agreement to sell Xandr, including AppNexus and Clypd, to Microsoft. Microsoft completed the acquisition on June 6, 2022, bringing the business into its advertising and retail-media activities. The transaction gave Microsoft additional advertising technology, publisher relationships, and video-marketplace capabilities. Xandr continued to operate during the integration period, but Microsoft subsequently retired the Xandr name in 2023 and consolidated the business under Microsoft Advertising. The former Xandr organization is no longer an independent active brand. Its technology and operations became part of Microsoft’s advertising activities. In 2025, Microsoft announced that it would shut down the Xandr Invest buy-side product in early 2026, marking a further winding down of the product identity associated with the former company. Xandr’s history reflects the consolidation of telecommunications, media ownership, programmatic advertising, television data, and retail-media capabilities under large technology and communications groups.
History
Xandr originated in AT&T’s effort to build a large-scale advertising and analytics business around its telecommunications, television, and media holdings. The immediate foundation was AT&T’s June 2018 acquisition of AppNexus, an advertising-technology company whose infrastructure could support automated buying and selling of digital advertising. Rather than retain AppNexus as a standalone identity, AT&T used it as a core component of a broader advertising platform. AT&T launched Xandr publicly on September 25, 2018, at its Relevance Conference in Santa Barbara, California. The company’s name, pronounced “Zander,” was selected as an homage to Alexander Graham Bell. Xandr’s initial strategic ambition was to create a national television advertising marketplace while also applying digital-advertising methods to video and television inventory. Its model combined audience data, advertising technology, media content, and distribution relationships in an attempt to make television advertising more targeted and measurable. In May 2019, Xandr launched Community, a video marketplace intended to connect advertisers and publishers with consumer-media brands. The service included inventory associated with AT&T and WarnerMedia properties, as well as outside publishers and media companies. Community illustrated Xandr’s role as an intermediary: it was not merely selling advertisements in its own media but providing a marketplace and technology layer for multiple inventory owners. The company also continued to develop its buy-side capabilities. In June 2019, Xandr rebranded the AppNexus demand-side platform as Xandr Invest. Invest served as the principal environment through which advertisers and agencies could purchase and optimize campaigns. Later that year, on October 18, Xandr acquired Clypd, a Massachusetts company specializing in audience-based television advertising sales. The acquisition strengthened Xandr’s focus on data-informed and addressable television advertising. Xandr was folded into WarnerMedia on April 30, 2020. The organizational change reflected AT&T’s attempt to align its advertising operation with a large collection of owned media properties. At the same time, AT&T’s broader financial and portfolio pressures prompted speculation that Xandr could be sold along with other non-core assets. Advertisers’ concerns about using an advertising platform connected to a major media owner also presented a strategic challenge, since some buyers might view such a platform as a potential competitor or as insufficiently neutral. In May 2021, AT&T announced that WarnerMedia would be combined with Discovery. Xandr was excluded from that transaction and remained with AT&T. On December 21, 2021, AT&T announced that it had agreed to sell Xandr, including AppNexus and Clypd, to Microsoft. Microsoft completed the acquisition on June 6, 2022. The deal added Xandr’s advertising technology, publisher connections, and video-marketplace capabilities to Microsoft’s advertising and retail-media operations. The Xandr identity did not remain a permanent standalone Microsoft brand. In 2023, Microsoft retired the name and consolidated the organization under Microsoft Advertising. In 2025, Microsoft announced that it planned to shut down the Xandr Invest buy-side product in early 2026. These changes effectively ended Xandr as an independent commercial brand, although elements of its technology and business relationships were absorbed into Microsoft’s advertising activities. Xandr’s legacy lies in the attempted convergence of programmatic digital advertising, addressable television, media ownership, audience analytics, and telecommunications data. Its short independent history also illustrates the difficulty of integrating an advertising marketplace with a large media conglomerate and subsequently transferring that business into a global technology company.
- 2025
Planned closure of Xandr Invest
[1]Microsoft announced that Xandr Invest would be shut down in early 2026.
- 2023
Xandr brand retired
[1]Microsoft consolidated the former Xandr business under Microsoft Advertising.
- 2022
Microsoft acquisition completed
[1]Microsoft completed the acquisition of Xandr on June 6 and brought the business into its advertising organization.
- 2021
Sale to Microsoft announced
[1]AT&T announced an agreement to sell Xandr, AppNexus, and Clypd to Microsoft.
- 2021
AT&T agrees to sell Xandr to Microsoft
[2]AT&T announces an agreement to sell Xandr, the organization containing AppNexus's integrated business, to Microsoft, subject to regulatory and other closing conditions.
- 2020
Integration into WarnerMedia
[1]AT&T folded Xandr into WarnerMedia as part of a closer alignment between advertising operations and media assets.
- 2019
Community video marketplace introduced
[1]Xandr launched Community to connect advertisers, publishers, and consumer-media brands through a video advertising marketplace.
- 2019
AppNexus DSP becomes Xandr Invest
[1]Xandr rebranded AppNexus’s demand-side platform as Xandr Invest and made it the company’s central advertising-buying product.
- 2019
Clypd acquisition
[1]Xandr acquired Clypd to expand its audience-based television advertising sales capabilities. Xandr acquires Clypd to strengthen technology for programmatic buying of linear television advertising.
- 2018
AT&T launches Xandr
[1]AT&T publicly launched Xandr on September 25, following its acquisition of AppNexus and its plan to build an integrated television and digital advertising marketplace.
Products and positioning
An integrated advertising-technology platform designed to connect advertisers, agencies, publishers, television operators, and digital-media owners through audience-based and programmatic buying. An independent, enterprise-oriented programmatic advertising infrastructure provider serving advertisers, agencies, publishers, and other participants in the digital media ecosystem.
Video advertising marketplace · 2019
Community
Community was Xandr’s video marketplace for connecting advertisers, publishers, and consumer-media brands. It brought together video advertising inventory from AT&T and WarnerMedia properties and from outside media organizations. The platform was intended to support audience-based campaign buying across a range of digital and television-related video environments.
Demand-side advertising platform · 2019
Xandr Invest
Xandr Invest was the company’s principal buy-side advertising platform, created through the rebranding of the AppNexus demand-side platform. It provided infrastructure for advertisers and agencies to purchase and optimize digital and video advertising. Microsoft later retired the Xandr brand and announced plans to shut down Invest in early 2026.
Programmatic advertising technology
AppNexus
AppNexus supplied the advertising-technology foundation used by Xandr. AT&T acquired AppNexus in June 2018, and its demand-side platform was subsequently rebranded as Xandr Invest. The AppNexus name remained relevant as part of the assets transferred to Microsoft in the Xandr acquisition.
Television advertising sales platform
Clypd
Clypd was a Massachusetts-based audience-based television advertising sales platform acquired by Xandr in 2019. Its capabilities supported Xandr’s effort to make television advertising more data-driven, targeted, and compatible with programmatic buying approaches.
Programmatic advertising platform
AppNexus Advertising Platform
The company's principal cloud-based platform for automated digital advertising. It combined auction and exchange infrastructure with demand-side and supply-side capabilities, ad serving, data management, campaign optimization, financial clearing, and support for directly negotiated advertising. It served advertisers, agencies, publishers, and other intermediaries across display and related digital media markets.
Advertising exchange
AppNexus Ad Exchange
An online auction environment that connected buyers and sellers of digital advertising inventory. The exchange supported programmatic transactions and integrations with external advertising sources and aggregators, helping buyers compete for impressions while enabling publishers to monetize available inventory.
Demand-side advertising technology
AppNexus Demand-Side Platform
Technology for advertisers and agencies to manage automated media buying, bidding, targeting, optimization, and campaign delivery. It formed one part of AppNexus's broader infrastructure rather than a standalone consumer-facing product.
Publisher advertising technology
AppNexus Supply-Side Platform
Publisher-facing functionality for managing advertising inventory, connecting with demand sources, optimizing yield, and supporting the sale of digital impressions through automated and directly negotiated transactions.
Controversies
2026
Norwegian Data Protection Authority fines Microsoft adtech subsidiary Xandr $9.6 million over Grindr user data
The Norwegian Data Protection Authority (NDPA) fined Xandr, an adtech subsidiary of Microsoft, 92 million Norwegian kroner (around $9.6 million), alleging the company did not obtain "explicit consent" to use sensitive Grindr user data for advertising purposes and instead only assumed the dating app had already secured user approval. The NDPA said that when a person opened Grindr, their personal data was in many cases relayed through Xandr to potentially thousands of actors in the advertising ecosystem, and that the data infringements took place between July 2018 and April 2020; the fine, calculated from Xandr's total annual turnover, is the highest the Norwegian authority has issued to date. The case started in 2020 when Norway's consumer council filed a complaint against Xandr with the NDPA, and Xandr has three weeks to appeal the penalty.
Brand decisions
2023
Retire the Xandr brandStrategyBackground
Following the acquisition, Microsoft sought to consolidate the acquired advertising activities within its existing commercial advertising organization.
Action taken
Microsoft discontinued the standalone Xandr identity and folded the business into Microsoft Advertising.
Aftermath
Xandr ceased to operate as an independent active brand, although elements of its technology and operations continued within Microsoft.
2021
AT&T agreement to sell Xandr to MicrosoftM&ABackground
AT&T was reviewing its portfolio and Xandr was not included in the proposed WarnerMedia and Discovery combination. AT&T agreed to divest Xandr, the advertising organization into which AppNexus had been integrated.
Action taken
AT&T announced an agreement to sell Xandr to Microsoft for an undisclosed price, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory reviews.
Aftermath
Microsoft completed the acquisition in 2022 and absorbed the business into its advertising and retail-media operations. The transaction placed the former AppNexus business within Microsoft's advertising portfolio rather than restoring AppNexus as an independent brand.
2019
Launch CommunityProduct launchBackground
Xandr sought to connect advertisers with video inventory from both AT&T-owned media properties and external publishers.
Action taken
The company introduced Community as a video marketplace for advertisers, publishers, and consumer-media brands.
Aftermath
Community broadened Xandr’s role from an advertising technology provider into a marketplace operator serving multiple media owners.
2019
Rebrand AppNexus DSP as Xandr InvestGeneration changeBackground
AppNexus was the principal technology asset underlying Xandr’s buy-side advertising capabilities.
Action taken
Xandr renamed the AppNexus demand-side platform Xandr Invest and positioned it as the core campaign-buying hub.
Aftermath
The rebrand unified the principal AppNexus buy-side product with the newer Xandr corporate identity.
2019
Acquire ClypdM&ABackground
Xandr needed additional capabilities for audience-based and addressable television advertising. Xandr sought to broaden its programmatic advertising capabilities beyond online media into linear television buying.
Action taken
Xandr acquired Clypd, a technology company focused on programmatic purchasing of linear television advertising.
Aftermath
The acquisition strengthened Xandr’s television advertising and audience-targeting proposition. The acquisition expanded the advertising group's technology scope into television inventory and automated linear-TV media buying.
2018
Create an integrated television and digital advertising marketplaceStrategyBackground
AT&T had acquired AppNexus and wanted to combine advertising technology with its telecommunications, television, data, and media assets.
Action taken
AT&T launched Xandr as a dedicated advertising and analytics business focused on programmatic digital advertising and a national television marketplace.
Aftermath
The strategy led to the creation of Community, the rebranding of AppNexus as Xandr Invest, and the acquisition of Clypd.
2018
AT&T acquisition of AppNexusM&ABackground
AT&T was seeking to expand its advertising, data, and media-technology capabilities through the addition of a large programmatic advertising infrastructure provider.
Action taken
AT&T announced an agreement to acquire AppNexus and place the company within its Xandr advertising division.
Aftermath
AppNexus's technology and organization were integrated into Xandr, and AppNexus ceased operating as an independent company and brand.
Recent events
- Unconfirmed
Reported
Norway's Datatilsynet fines Microsoft-owned Xandr 92 million NOK over Grindr user data[6]
Norway's data protection authority Datatilsynet fined Microsoft's advertising technology subsidiary Xandr 92 million Norwegian kroner (approximately $9.6 million) for unlawfully processing personal information associated with Grindr users, conduct that took place between July 2018 and April 2020, before Microsoft acquired Xandr in 2022. The regulator found Xandr assumed Grindr had obtained the required consent but failed to verify it or establish a valid legal basis for its own processing. The fine, described as the largest ever issued by the authority, ends a case begun by a January 2020 complaint from privacy group Noyb; Xandr has three weeks to appeal.
Reported
Norway's Datatilsynet fines Microsoft-owned Xandr 92 million kroner over Grindr user data sharing[5]
Norway's data protection authority Datatilsynet fined Microsoft-owned advertising technology company Xandr 92 million Norwegian kroner (about £7.3 million or $9.6 million) on 12 October for unlawfully processing and sharing sensitive personal data linked to users of dating app Grindr. The regulator said Xandr relayed information revealing users' sexual orientation to potentially thousands of companies through automated real-time bidding advertising auctions between July 2018 and April 2020, and rejected Xandr's argument that it could rely on Grindr to obtain users' consent, finding the companies were joint data controllers with Xandr's own lawful-basis obligation. The fine, calculated on Xandr's own annual turnover and the largest Datatilsynet has issued to date, followed a 2020 complaint by the Norwegian Consumer Council and noyb. Microsoft said it is reviewing the decision and assessing its options, stressing the conduct predates its 2022 acquisition of Xandr; Xandr has three weeks from receiving the decision to appeal.
- Unconfirmed
Reported
Norwegian Data Protection Authority fines Microsoft adtech subsidiary Xandr $9.6 million over Grindr user data[4]
The Norwegian Data Protection Authority (NDPA) fined Xandr, an adtech subsidiary of Microsoft, 92 million Norwegian kroner (around $9.6 million), alleging the company did not obtain "explicit consent" to use sensitive Grindr user data for advertising purposes and instead only assumed the dating app had already secured user approval. The NDPA said that when a person opened Grindr, their personal data was in many cases relayed through Xandr to potentially thousands of actors in the advertising ecosystem, and that the data infringements took place between July 2018 and April 2020; the fine, calculated from Xandr's total annual turnover, is the highest the Norwegian authority has issued to date. The case started in 2020 when Norway's consumer council filed a complaint against Xandr with the NDPA, and Xandr has three weeks to appeal the penalty.
Reported
Microsoft announces agreement to acquire Xandr[7]
Microsoft and AT&T announced an agreement for Microsoft to acquire AT&T’s Xandr advertising technology unit. The purchase price was not disclosed.
- Unconfirmed
Reported
Bell and Xandr partner to create self-serve advertising platform[8]
Bell is partnering with advertising technology company Xandr to create a self-serve advertising platform for TV and digital, intended to serve Canadian advertisers and agency partners.
Reported
Dentsu Aegis Network and Xandr announce strategic partnership[9]
Dentsu Aegis Network and Xandr announced a strategic partnership to provide the Dentsu Curate programmatic supply solution using Xandr’s technology platform.
Reported
DoubleVerify announces CTV Targeting Certification program[10]
DoubleVerify announced a CTV Targeting Certification program for programmatic platforms, designed to protect advertisers from fraud and invalid traffic in connected TV. It said Amobee, MediaMath, SpotX, The Trade Desk and Xandr had been certified.
Reported
Xandr acquired clypd[11]
AT&T’s Xandr advertising unit acquired clypd, adding advanced TV capabilities to its existing digital and addressable business. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Sources14 sources
- 1Xandren.wikipedia.org
- 2AppNexusen.wikipedia.org
- 3AT&T to Acquire AppNexusabout.att.com
- 4Norwegian Data Protection Authority fines Microsoft adtech subsidiary Xandr $9.6 million over Grindr user dataengadget.com
- 5Norwegian Data Protection Authority fines Microsoft adtech subsidiary Xandr $9.6 million over Grindr user dataibtimes.co.uk
- 6Norwegian Data Protection Authority fines Microsoft adtech subsidiary Xandr $9.6 million over Grindr user dataesecurityplanet.com
- 7微软宣布收购 Xandrsiliconangle.com
- 8Bell与Xandr合作创建自助广告平台mobilesyrup.com
- 9电通安吉斯网络与Xandr宣布建立战略合作伙伴关系exchangewire.com
- 10DoubleVerify宣布推出联网电视定向认证计划finanznachrichten.de
- 11Xandr 收购 clypdnexttv.com
- 12微軟收購AT&T Xandr以強化廣告業務ithome.com.tw
- 13AT&T’s Xandr Acquires Data-Centric Linear TV Ad Platform Clypddeadline.com
- 14Microsoft subsidiary Xandr fined by Norway for sharing Grindr user data | IceNews - Daily Newsicenews.is
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