What might have been is not what is.  Remember Volta, the electric charging station manufacturer which was going to support itself with programmatically placed out of home ads?  Volta went public in 2021 with a $2 billion valuation and then cratered as ad revenue trailed projections.  Shell bought Volta for $169 million in 2022.  Turns out there isn’t much synergy between a programmatic out of home ad business and an oil and gas company.  Volta lost $140 million in 2024 so Shell shut the business down.   See articles at AdExchanger and C-Store Dive.

Billboard Insider’s take:  This is a cautionary tale about staying in your lane.  Selling out of home ads is different from finding oil and gas.  The synergies associated with cross-industry mergers are always overstated.  Stick to what you know.

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