Ad technology firm The Rubicon Project has acquired Mobsmith, a mobile advertising platform for an undisclosed sum.
Mobsmith provides a mobile platform for publishers to directly sell their mobile web and in-app ad inventory on leading mobile devices.
The deal will see Rubicon Project combine its real-time trading platform REVV with Mobsmith’s mobile solution.
The deal will give its clients of publishers and ad buyers a single platform and marketplace for buying and selling of both display and mobile ad inventory.
In the U.S. alone, analysts expect the market for mobile advertising to reach $2.7 billion by the end of this year, and $7.7 billion by 2016.
Rubicon Project’s REVV, helps publishers make more money by automating and optimising their display advertising sales business. REVV has the largest installed base of comScore 500 publishers including 1/3 of the comScore 100.
REVV gives publishers controlled access to more than 70,000 advertisers purchasing through 700 buyer channels (DSPs, Trading Desks, Ad Networks and Exchanges) and gives ad buyers safe access to premium inventory and an audience of 650 million unique users (the #2 network reach of users as measured by comScore).
The combined solution will offer a direct and programmatic mobile ad platform and Real Time Trading marketplace for comScore 500 inventory.
“Just like the online display market, the mobile ad market needs a complete direct and programmatic ad monetisation platform. We see an opportunity to leverage our massive installed base of comScore 500 publishers and largest independent marketplace for ad buyers to take a leadership position in mobile like we have in display advertising,” said Frank Addante, CEO & Founder of the Rubicon Project. “We chose to acquire Mobsmith because they have the best product we have seen on the market and the strongest product and engineering team.”
“Our team, including my co-founder, Saket Saurabh, has always been committed to building high quality products that are compelling for both mobile publishers and advertisers. As a result, we’ve garnered the trust of customers such as Babycenter, Netshelter Technology Media and Tripit, who have integrated our technology to successfully monetise their mobile inventory,” said Ingrid Lestiyo, CEO and Co-Founder of Mobsmith. “We’re excited to become part of the Rubicon Project team and continue to provide a full end-to-end mobile platform that generates more revenue for publishers.”
As part of the transaction, Rubicon adds an office in San Francisco in addition to its seven current offices in five countries – further supporting the company’s growth and capability to provide unparalleled service to regional customers and partners around the globe.
This is the fourth ad technology acquisition that the company has completed in the past three years. Ezra Roizen of Ackrell Capital was the advisor to Mobsmith in this transaction.