Yahoo To Improve Its Mobile Ads With Admovate Acquisition

Yahoo has announced it will acquire Admovate, a developer of mobile advertising technology, which creates tools to help marketers “reach their desired audience at the right time and place”.

The exact terms of the deal were not disclosed. This is Yahoo’s fourth acquisition in two months.

In June, the company paid an undisclosed amount for photography app developer GhostBird Software and conference calling start-up Rondee. And in the beginning of July, it also acquired fantasy sports app developer Bignoggins Productions and video app developer Qwiki.

Hyper-local

The relatively unknown Admovate was founded in 2012, to deliver “hyper-local” targeted advertising on mobile devices. In the nearest future, the company’s engineers will join Yahoo display advertising team in Sunnyvale, California.

“This acquisition is part of our efforts to invest further in our ad tech platforms- Apt, Genome, and Right Media – and make buying easier for advertisers and agencies,” wrote Scott Burke, SVP of display advertising and advertising technology at Yahoo.

“Yahoo is dedicated to crafting unique mobile experiences for our users, including new advertising opportunities, and Admovate will help fuel these efforts.”

“In Yahoo, we found a team which shares our vision and is investing to make it real on a massive scale,” read the statement on the Admovate website, which has already been stripped of content. “We’re thrilled to join Yahoo’s advertising team where together we will execute that vision faster and address the most important mobile advertising challenges for our customers.”

Yet another acquisition of a mobile developer by Yahoo is part of the plan to reinvent the once-great company, and shape it into a competitor to Microsoft, Facebook and Google. It is the brainchild of the company’s new CEO Marissa Mayer, a former Google engineer who took over the struggling business exactly a year ago. In just 12 months, Meyer authorised 17 acquisitions, including a $1.1 billion deal to buy the popular blogging platform Tumblr.

Meyer’s attempts to turn the company around have been somewhat hindered by falling income from advertising. In the second quarter of 2013, Yahoo’s display ad revenue fell 12 percent, and search revenue slumped by 9 percent. The company posted a $331 million profit (£218m) during the quarter, a 46 percent increase year-on-year, but this has been largely attributed to the success of Chinese website Alibaba, in which Yahoo owns a 24 percent stake.

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