Analytics Make the World Go ‘Round, Especially for Faltering Ad Networks
Mobile ad network operator Millennial Media has been busy lately, warding off flailing interest from Wall Street and making acquisitions in an effort to continually improve its targeting and analytics capabilities. In a business world increasingly driven by data, Millennial Media has acquired Metasolver, a privately-held analytics startup that help marketers improve ad targeting.
Millennial Media CEO Paul Palmieri announced the buyout during the company’s fourth quarter earnings call earlier this week. He described the deal as a “small but strategic cash acquisition” that will “help us deliver additional programmatic buying solutions to advertisers.”
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but we know that the company raised $1.85 million in seed capital from Harrison Metal Capital, Baseline Ventures, Lerer Ventures and a couple of other VCs. This would suggest that that Millennial shelled out a very handsome sum for the San Fransico-based startup, which only has seven employees.
Metaresolver was co-founded by M:Metrics founder Seamus McAteer and Mike Rowehl, the first engineer at AdMob. Its flagship product is a platform that processes large volume of data from real-time mobile bidding exchanges in order to help marketers improve targeting,and spend more wisely.
The team will continue to operate from its current headquarters after the deal is given the green light by regulators.
The software competes with a similar offering from DataXu, a Boston-based firm that recently closed a $27 million founding round led by Thomvest Ventures. The latter company’s own programmatic marketing solution is immensely popular among large brands – demand increased by 700 percent for 2012.
Millennial Media helps advertisers get their message across to consumers. The acquisition of Metaresolver will allow the mobile ad operator to step it up a notch by providing its users with the tools needed to do so efficiently. This is the kind of competitive advantage that can prove hugely advantageous in the cutthroat mobile advertisement market, where Millennial is only one of several big firms that are competing over marketers and views.
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