COMPANY PROFILE
Outbrain
Headquarters: New York, United States · Group: Teads · Founded: 2006 · Listed: NASDAQ: TEAD
What it does and how it makes money
Outbrain is an advertising platform that places ads and content recommendations on news sites, apps and connected TV, for advertisers and media owners. In 2025 it bought Teads and its parent company was renamed Teads Holding Co. (formerly Outbrain Inc.).
It charges advertisers for the ads it shows on partner media owners' inventory; in 2025, 93% of its revenue came directly from advertisers. [1]
What data it collects about you
It uses a cookie or your phone's advertising ID to assign you an identifier and records the pages you visit, your browser and device, and an approximate location from your IP address. It uses this to build interest categories that decide which ads and content you see. [2]
How it turns your data into money
Outbrain (now Teads) places the recommended-links and ad blocks on news sites. According to its privacy policy, it drops a cookie on your device to generate an identifier (UUID), catalogues and analyzes the content you consume across partner sites, how long you stay on each page and your IP address (translated into non-precise location), and when it takes part in ad auctions it collects technical data such as IP address, device type and unique advertising IDs, which it adds to your user profile to infer interest categories. Its ads are based on that UUID's browsing history; it may share parts of your profile, such as identifiers, with DSPs, SSPs and ad exchanges, and gives data to measurement providers. It says it does not conduct cross-device tracking, that the cookie expires 30 days after your last interaction and that the profile is kept for no more than 90 days. Its own example: it may know that UUID 123 likes to read about far-away holiday destinations and show matching ads. It earns money when advertisers purchase, through its platform, the inventory of the media owners that use it. [2]
Where it is incorporated
Outbrain Inc., formed in Delaware in 2006, changed its name to Teads Holding Co. on June 6, 2025 after completing on February 3, 2025 the acquisition of TEADS, a Luxembourg société à responsabilité limitée, for approximately $900 million ($625 million in cash plus 43.75 million shares); Altice Teads S.A. ended up with about 46.6% of the common stock. It is headquartered at 111 West 19th Street, New York, and has traded on Nasdaq as TEAD since June 10, 2025. [1]
Taxes and low-tax countries
Its FY2025 10-K subsidiaries exhibit lists 64 entities, including two in Luxembourg (Teads SARL and Teads MENA SARL), two in the Netherlands (Outbrain Netherlands B.V. and Teads NL BV), three in Switzerland (OT Swiss Financing GmbH, Teads Schweiz GmbH and video intelligence AG), plus Outbrain Israel Ltd., Teads Middle East FZ-LLC (UAE) and subsidiaries in Singapore, Hong Kong and other countries. [3]
Competition and monopoly
In 2020 the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) investigated the purchase of Outbrain by its competitor Taboola: at Phase 1 (June 2020) it found UK publishers would have a reduced choice of content-recommendation supplier, with a risk of worse terms and lower advertising revenue, and opened a Phase 2 investigation. On September 14, 2020 Taboola announced it was abandoning the deal and the CMA said it would cancel its investigation. [4]
Money
Fines and sanctions
We found no published fines or sanctions when we checked it on October 12, 2026.
Data breaches and hacks
We found no published data breaches when we checked it on October 12, 2026.
Ask it to delete your data
This is the page the company itself gives to ask it to delete your data or stop selling it: Open its page [2]
With GUARDIANA or GUARDIANA ZERO, you download from this same profile the letter asking it to delete your data, under your country’s law, ready to attach to an email.
Its website
Does this company follow you? GUARDIANA ZERO, GUARDIANA’s browser, cuts its connections and shows you how many times it tried. Meet GUARDIANA ZERO →
Sources
- https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1454938/000145493826000015/tead-20251231.htm
- https://www.outbrain.com/privacy/
- https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1454938/000145493826000015/exhibit211-202510xk.htm
- https://www.gov.uk/government/news/digital-advertising-merger-to-be-abandoned-during-cma-investigation
- https://www.stocktitan.net/news/TEAD/teads-holding-co-announces-fourth-quarter-and-full-year-2025-t891vk37a4ol.html
What this profile does NOT say
- It does not say this company does anything illegal. The only thing it states about anyone’s legality is what a regulator or a court has already decided, with the date and the link to the source.
- It does not say what data of yours it holds: only the company knows, which is why you have the right to ask it.
- If you are this company and a fact is wrong, write to hola@guardianagroup.com and it will be corrected, with its date.
Public facts with their sources, checked on October 12, 2026. All profiles →