Why acquire just one company when you can afford – and can use – the services of two leading companies in your field? Apparently, that’s the thinking at Opera Software, which is turning heads today in mobile advertising with its two new purchases.
Opera Software announced Thursday that it has acquired Mobile Theory Inc. and 4th Screen Advertising, Ltd., “to significantly expand its offering to advertisers and mobile publishers that engage consumers via the mobile web and applications, across all mobile platforms.
If you’re unfamiliar with the players in the story, Mobile Theory is a premium mobile advertising network focused on the U.S. mobile advertising market. Meanwhile, 4th Screen Advertising is a premium mobile advertising network focused on serving the European mobile advertising markets.
Additionally, these acquisitions will enable Opera to better monetize the traffic that flows through Opera Mini and Opera Mobile browsers. With the world’s most popular mobile browser, Opera serves more than 160 million monthly active users that generate more than 100 billion page views, and consume more than 16 Petabytes of mobile data services a month, as of December 2011.
“This is yet another important step in Opera’s quest to create even more economic value in the mobile ecosystem,” said Lars Boilesen, CEO of Opera Software. “Two years ago, we announced the acquisition of AdMarvel – which has grown to become the global leader as a supply-side platform (publisher platform) for mobile advertising. Last year, Opera helped generate well over $200 million in revenue for our publishers globally.”