AppNexus CEO Brian O'Kelley seems to be enjoying all the media attention his company has been getting in the wake of Yahoo's $1.1 billion deal for Tumblr.
With Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer clearly still in acquisition mode — she bought two more startups last week — everyone wants to know if she might sign a really big check for AppNexus, New York's biggest adtech company.
O'Kelley teased Business Insider with a coy answer to the question last week, in which he declined to deny that he might file for an IPO in the foreseeable future. With 500 employees, $700 million in adspend under management, and $141 million in funding, a deal or public offering for AppNexus would require billions to close.
Here's what O'Kelley told The Guardian recently:
"I cannot imagine Yahoo buying us," he says. "But I can't stop them writing a cheque so big that I couldn't say no. I am, at some point, subject to many, many zeros."
A many-zeroed deal for AppNexus isn't an outlandish idea. It was Yahoo that bought O'Kelley's previous company, Right Media, for $850 million in 2007.
SEE ALSO: AppNexus CEO Says IPO Could Be Dependent On Timing Or Acquisition Prospects
