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Mobile Ad Network InMobi Buys Overlay Media To Improve Ad Personalization, And More
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Mobile ad network InMobi continues to make use of the $200 million in financing it received in 2011 from Softbank: today it is announcing the acquisition of Overlay Media, a UK-based developer of “context-aware” computing technologies. Among other things, InMobi will use Overlay Media to improve how it targets and personalizes ads to specific users. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but we are trying to find out and will update this post as we learn more. The acquisition is the latest from InMobi, which operates platforms for rich media ads that it says reach 578 million consumers in 165 countries. In July 2012, it bought MMTG Labs and later Metaflow to improve its mobile ad distribution both to smartphones and feature phones. Although the Overlay Media deal is being announced today, it actually closed in the second half of last year, TechCrunch has learned. InMobi is also backed by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Sherpalo Ventures, in addition to Softbank. The Overlay Media deal is as much about technology as it is talent acquisition. The CEO and founder of the company, Ian Anderson, first started the company in Bristol in 2007 while he was at the university there working on a PhD in mobile and wearable computing. Overlay’s speciality, Anderson said in an interview today, is “imagining what the mobile phone might look like in 2014 and 2015.” Overlay was funded by the IP Group, a London-based VC with a track record of backing research-intensive startups. “We are excited to add amazing talent to InMobi,” Naveen Tewari, Founder and CEO at InMobi, said in a statement. “This acquisition, along with Metaflow Solutions and MMTG Labs, will help us to continue to be at the forefront of delivering highly engaging content to consumers globally.” All six Overlay Media employees have joined InMobi’s London office, with Anderson now holding the title of InMobi’s principal research scientist. Overalay’s technology itself has a two-fold use, neither of which is being commercially deployed at the moment through InMobi or any other company, but both of which will continue to be developed going forward. First, Overlay has developed something it calls the Context Engine, which can pick up, automatically, different mobile device diagnostics and other data such as batter power and user location (eg near home or in a car). This, in turn, can be delivered to an application to improve or tailor how data is presented to users. Two examples
source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/XLNCeVPX0_8/
2013-01-08 06:32:15
Source: http://someit.com/2013/01/08/mobile-ad-network-inmobi-buys/
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