AT&T has acquired digital advertising technology company AppNexus, it said Monday, signaling that the telecom giant is looking to become a bigger player in digital advertising and siphon digital ad dollars from Google and Facebook.  

The deal, reportedly worth around $1.6 billion, will bring AppNexus’s digital advertising capabilities under AT&T’s expanding roof. AT&T will likely use AppNexus’ capabilities to better leverage its existing customer data and its vast portfolio of television content it just acquired in a landmark $85.4 billion merger with the entertainment giant Time Warner.