Yahoo buys video ads group BrightRoll Yahoo is making a bigger push into video advertising by buying BrightRoll, a programmatic video ads platform, in its first major acquisition since the sale of part of its stake in Chinese e-commerce group Alibaba. The internet company will pay $640m in cash for San Francisco-based BrightRoll, as part of Yahoo chief executive Marissa Mayer's bid to shore up its advertising technology to stop losing share in the digital advertising market. BrightRoll powers digital video ads for brands across websites, apps and internet connected TV, collecting data to try to help marketers quickly serve targeted adverts on the right pages. Programmatic ads are bought by computer software rather than by human ad buyers. Ms Mayer said video was "one of the largest growth opportunities" for Yahoo and should help build "positive momentum" for Yahoo's display advertising business, which has suffered as marketers shun banner ads in favour of sponsored posts and ads on social networks. "We have been extremely thoughtful about our approach to the video advertising space," she said. 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. BrightRoll has revenues of over $100m and will enhance Yahoo's earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, the company said in a statement. Shares in Yahoo fell 0.7 per cent to $49.05 in after-hours trading in New York. Yahoo's share of the US digital advertising market fell to 5.8 per cent in 2013 and is forecast to fall to 4.9 per cent this year, according to data from research firm eMarketer. By buying a video advertising company, Ms Mayer is hoping to benefit from the fast growing US digital video advertising market, which eMarketer expects to grow 56 per cent this year to $6bn. As marketers adopt video as a more engaging way to promote a brand, it is expected to grow to $12.8bn by 2018. Yahoo is taking on YouTube and Facebook with its push into video advertising, with the Google-owned video site accounting for 18.9 per cent of the video ad market and Facebook taking share as it rolls out more premium video products. BrightRoll is the first big acquisition that Ms Mayer has made since Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce group, went public in September. Yahoo raised $6.3bn, after tax, from that sale. Investors had been speculating about how she might use the funds that the company made by selling down its stake in Alibaba in the initial public offering. One activist shareholder has argued it should explore a tie-up with AOL and some had been concerned she might spend most of the money on dealmaking that would not increase revenue. In an earnings call last month, Ms Mayer defended her plans to use some of the money for M&A, as well as share buybacks, saying it was a "necessity" when the company was suffering from "quite aged" legacy technology.