Ateev Bhandari and Niket Nishant
2 min read
By Ateev Bhandari and Niket Nishant
(Reuters) -MNTN, an advertising platform for internet-connected TVs which has actor Ryan Reynolds as its chief creative officer, secured a valuation of $1.62 billion after its shares jumped 31.25% in their debut on the NYSE on Thursday, signaling continued momentum in the recovering IPO market.
The U.S. adtech's stock opened at $21 apiece, compared with the IPO price of $16, boosting prospects for other companies looking to offer first-time share sales.
MNTN and some existing stockholders on Wednesday sold 11.70 million shares at the top of its marketed range of $14 to $16 per share, raising $187.2 million.
MNTN's IPO comes on the heels of Israeli trading platform eToro's bumper Nasdaq debut last week, marking the first U.S. IPO to proceed after tariff uncertainty scuttled several planned launches last month.
Founded in 2009 by Mark Douglas, MNTN launched its performance TV marketing (PTV) in 2018, which leverages a rapidly accelerating transition from cable to streaming by enabling small and medium businesses to provide targeted performance marketing solutions on internet TVs.
The number of customers for the company's PTV offering rose nearly 89% year-over-year for the three months ended March 31, company filings show.
STRENGTH IN TECH
U.S. President Donald Trump's flip-flop on trade and geopolitical policy last month, coupled with his attacks on U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, led to global M&A activity in April falling to its lowest level in more than 20 years.
However, sectors focused on intellectual property are affected less by tariffs, some analysts have said. The technology sector was responsible for almost 40% of the nearly $600 billion in deals signed this year in the U.S.
"Engineers make up a third of the employees at MNTN, and the company is planning to grow that to around 50% by the end of the year," Douglas, chief executive, told Reuters in an interview.
But a wider pullback in consumer spending could hurt small and medium businesses, which along with being the majority of U.S. importers and exporters, also made up 91% of MNTN's PTV revenue for the first quarter of 2025, according to the company.
(Reporting by Ateev Bhandari and Niket Nishant in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid and Shailesh Kuber)
