Delving deeper into the mobile ad arena, Twitter has officially acquired MoPub, a startup that helps mobile publishers manage their ad inventory.
The deal, which cost Twitter a reported $350 million in stock to close, is giving the microblogging giant yet another advantage in its mobile advertising ambitions.
It was rumored that Millennial Media was also in talks to acquire MoPub before Twitter emerged as the victorious buyer.
All told, the buy should go a long way to boost investor optimism if Twitter files for an IPO as expected in early 2014.
According to the latest estimates from eMarketer, Twitter will generate $583 million in advertising sales in 2013 before breaking the $1-billion threshold in 2015.
“But more than half of Twitter’s revenue already comes from mobile advertising, eliminating one of the main concerns that investors had about Facebook at the time of its IPO,” says Jessica Guynn of the Los Angeles Time.