A couple weeks ago, news broke that Mobclix — the mobile ad-exchange that launched at TechCrunch 50 only two years ago — was in talks to be acquired by “a publicly-traded company.” This morning, news broke once again that the buyer is London-based mobile marketing firm Velti.
Velti is an interesting company that offers a SaaS platform that allows agencies and brands to plan, manage, and optimize mobile advertising and marketing campaigns in real time. It’s one of those companies that you don’t hear much about, but has grown by leaps and bounds recently and the mobile marketing industry has continued to heat up. The company says that in 2009 alone, 2,000 mobile campaigns were run on its platform by more than 450 brands, agencies, and mobile operators in more than 35 countries. Prior to Mobclix, Velti has acquired a number of companies over the past year, including mobile ad technology startups Media Cannon
and AdInfuse.
The way Velti’s core technology works makes Mobclix a perfect fit, as its exchange allows app developers to sign up with their ad inventory and ad networks — like Millennial Media, JumpTap and others — and bid for the spots based on age, gender, location, and other factors. The ads being served change automatically, based on which ad network is bidding the highest to reach the users of that particular app. While terms of the acquisition havn’t been disclosed, TechCrunch reports the amount to be “north of $50 million.”
“Mobclix has established itself as an innovative and important player in the areas of mobile applications and analytics,” said Alex Moukas, CEO of Velti. “In concert with Velti’s existing software-as-a-service-based mobile marketing and advertising solutions for agencies, brands, mobile operators and media organizations, we believe the combined companies present a valuable resource.”
