GOOG buys AdMeld for $400,000,000.oo

Google has agreed to acquire international online-advertising outfit AdMeld

[Leosghost]

AdMeld provides "ad optimization", offering technology that helps websites choose which ads to accept from which ad networks and other ad buyers

Story .. [theregister.co.uk...]

and here [adage.com...]

and story broken by techcrunch [techcrunch.com...] on Thursday June 9.

[Lexur]

I don't know what AdMeid does but I think to pay 400M$ for ANY small company means they are too rich to be smart.

[engine]

It looks like the regulators will be taking an interest in this deal.

Regulators may take an interest in AdMeld deal [allthingsd.com]

Google’s full employment program for anti-trust regulators continues: The search giant is in the final stages of a deal to purchase ad tech company AdMeld. Like other recent Google purchases, this deal will automatically generate scrutiny from Washington before it can formally close.

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

Regulators will take interest in any Google deal by default, nothing surprising there.

From the admeld site:

Unlike many companies in this space, Admeld is built and run by publishing veterans. Our CEO, Michael, led global sales at Fox Interactive Media, our Co-Founders Ben and Brian held senior positions at AOL, and our Chief Media Officer, Jason, was most recently VP of Strategy & Revenue for Time Inc. Digital. Because we’ve walked in your shoes, we’re more passionate and better equipped to help you than anyone else.

The talent is probably what's being bought, the technology includes data centers around the world and custom code of course but Google could build that on their own. Jason Kelly is former Microsoft Advertising. The new Google CEO is rather quick on replenishing the ranks of his "surround yourself with the best and brightest" mantra.

[bw100]

In addition to talent, this is another addition to the Google stable of display-advertising oriented acquisitions.
And, rate-arbitrage experienced companies.

"AdMeld veered off to being mostly an RTB arbitrageur, buying inventory at low prices from publishers and selling it for higher prices to advertisers while keeping the spread for themselves -- without giving any transparency into this practice to publishers."

compatible with DoubleClick

This is similar to how Google tapped DoubleClick to get a first look at the impression and then arbitrage publishers' inventory through Google AdEx. This acquisition and business model is good for Google, but bad for publishers, he said. Google has struggled to get mass adoption with the top 500 publishers because their interests are not aligned, and sometimes competitive, with the publisher.

prompting the first of what will probably be many competitive offers for migration

Executives at the Rubicon Project feel so strongly that this is bad for publishers and the open market that they are offering all existing AdMeld customers 90 days of free service.

[mediapost.com ] for all above quotes

The wonderful, wacky world of advertising. The media, and the players, change, but the game remains the same: Publishers vs. Advertisers (generally amicable), and when there is a broker or arbitrageur in the middle, always interesting.

[Lexur]

Come on guys! Are we talking about 400 millions... of dollars? That's too much talent or knowledge.

[bw100]

That's too much talent or knowledge.

Within the realm of conjecture, text ad revenues may be decreasing, and display will soon supplant it. Here's a thought-provoking opinion on the reason for the purchase: More display ad volume

The Real Reason Google Is Paying Up Big For Admeld

Forget Yield Optimization, This Is About Buying Volume for Real-Time Advertising

Google bought QPS volume, period. [QPS is queries per second, a measure of liquidity or volume of display ads being offered via real time bidding or RTB.]

[adage.com ]