Private equity giant KKR is in talks to acquire the adtech company Integral Ad Science

• KKR is in talks to acquire adtech firm Integral Ad Science, sources told Business Insider.
• IAS appointed investment bank Jefferies to explore options after receiving takeover interest.
• IAS closely competes with DoubleVerify, though it's smaller by revenue and market capitalization.

Private equity firm KKR is in talks to acquire the publicly listed adtech company Integral Ad Science, three people familiar with the process said.

It couldn't be immediately determined whether the discussions were at an advanced stage, and the plans could change.

One of those people and an additional source said other potential acquirers had also expressed an interest in IAS but didn't offer further information. All of the people asked for anonymity to protect their business relationships; their identities are known to Business Insider.

Bloomberg reported last month that IAS had appointed the investment bank Jefferies to explore its options after receiving takeover interest. IAS shares popped more than 10% on the news at the time.

KKR and IAS declined to comment.

Founded in the US in 2009, IAS offers technology that advertisers use to measure the quality and performance of their ads and to help them avoid their campaigns appearing next to unseemly content. It also offers solutions to publishers that help them verify that their ads are viewable, fraud-free, and placed in suitable environments for brands.

IAS has recently signed new or expanded partnerships with major tech companies like Google, Amazon, and Reddit. In its second quarter, the company grew revenue by 14% to $129 million and raised its full-year guidance. IAS is due to report its third-quarter earnings on November 12.

A take-private deal by a private equity firm like KKR could help IAS grow further without the quarterly Wall Street scrutiny. IAS was previously private equity-owned after Vista Equity Partners acquired it in 2018. Vista retains a more than 40% stake in IAS, which went public in 2021.

KKR already has an ad industry footprint. It has stakes in the public adtech company AppLovin, the corporate communications firm FGS Global, and the customer experience software provider Alchemer.

(KKR was also a shareholder in Business Insider's parent company Axel Springer. In September, Axel Springer announced it would separate its media properties into a privately-owned company, while KKR retained the classifieds side of the business.)

KKR has over $600 billion in assets under management.

Ted Oberwager, a partner at KKR who leads its gaming, entertainment, media, and sports verticals, told BI earlier this year that the firm was looking to invest in companies that had "great teams and leaders who can navigate the rapidly shifting advertising, marketing, and communications landscapes."

IAS fiercely competes with ad verification rival DoubleVerify, which is larger in terms of annual revenue and has a market capitalization of $3.3 billion to IAS's $1.99 billion as of publication time.

Both companies came under recent scrutiny after a series of reports found their advertiser clients had run ads in unsavory corners of the web, such as sites with graphically violent, racist, or pornographic content — despite using the companies' brand safety software. The companies have disputed those reports' methodologies and findings.

Publishers have also criticized brand safety methods such as keyword blocking and exclusion lists — words that trigger ads to be blocked on a webpage — as blunt instruments that unfairly demonetize their content. IAS and DoubleVerify have said they have refined their brand safety tools by pushing further into areas like AI and other technologies that analyze the context and semantics of an article.