Summary: The recently acquired AOL has now acquired a new company of their own – Millennial Media, a mobile ad tech company.
AOL was acquired just three months ago by Verizon, a U.S. telecom giant. Now AOL has announced they will be acquiring the mobile ad tech company Millennial Media for $1.75 per share. Once cash and debt are factored into the deal, AOL will be purchasing the company for around $238 million.
AOL has been around for a long time and is one of the oldest Internet brands. They brought email and instant messaging. In 2001 they merged with Time Warner but had drifted into an independent company by 2009. Their new focus was in digital media, adding Huffington Post, TechCrunch, and Engadget to their roster. AOL also focused on original video content and programmatic advertising technology, gaining the attention of Verizon.
Verizon bought AOL for $4.4 billion, giving them easy access to the automated buying/selling of ads. Millennial Media was founded in Baltimore nine years ago. In 2012, the company was considered a billion-dollar company but has had trouble keeping up with the big names like Facebook. The hope is that Millennial Media will continue to foster AOL and Verizon’s growth into the mobile ad market.
It is expected that two-thirds of mobile ads in the U.S. will be spent on programmatic ads by 2016, for a total of $20 million.
Photo: adweek.com