Outbrain went public at $20 a share. Five years later, under a new name, its stock traded below $1. In between, it built the box of links that sits under countless news stories. Outbrain's software guessed what a reader might click next, mixing a publisher's own stories with paid ones from advertisers. Every click earned money, and Outbrain shared it with the publisher. When it filed in 2021, newsrooms were short of cash, and these links paid a real share of their bills.

Two Israelis and a Widget

Yaron Galai and Ori Lahav founded Outbrain in Israel in 2006 and later based it in New York. The first product suggested related articles to keep readers on a site. Paid recommendations came next, and they became the business. Outbrain signed big publishers around the world and fought a long battle with its rival Taboola. The two agreed to merge in 2019, then called off the deal in 2020.

A New Name, a Lower Price

Outbrain priced its IPO at $20 a share on July 22, 2021, and listed on Nasdaq as OB. Ad markets cooled, and the stock spent most of its public life below that price. In February 2025 Outbrain closed its purchase of Teads, a video ad company, for about $1 billion, and took the Teads name and the ticker TEAD. In August 2026 Nasdaq warned the company that its shares had closed below $1 for 30 business days in a row.

Cover: Reading the newspaper in the family circle, Honoré-Victorin Daumier. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a family reading the newspaper (what to read next).