According to TechCrunch's Mike Arrington, multiple sources tell him that sell-side platform AdMeld is being acquired for $400 million by Google - a very healthy number - especially if previous rumors of $150-200 million were true and AdMeld held out for more. Also, as Arrington points out, the company raised only $30 million in venture capital.
For Google, they get what they were having trouble building in-house, sell-side controls in a real-time bidded (RTB) environment.
Also, Google gets a healthy AdMeld client list which was on display at the AdMeld forum back in February. Top-tier publishers are using AdMeld to make their entry into the world of exchanges and RTB. Given Google's announcement during the last earnings' call, Google Display Network will likely be selling its guaranteed sales solution to AdMeld clients.
Private exchanges is another trend which AdMeld has rode with success. The "Private Exchange" solution plugs into the Google stack and makes nice with Google's private ad slots.
UPDATE 6:41 p.m.: Sources confirm that AdMeld is saying there is no signed deal.
By John Ebbert
my view: Google, Admeld & The Need for Diabolical Liquidity http://jaysears.com/2011/06/10/google-admeld-the-need-for-diabolical-liquidity/
does anyone know what valuation multiple and metric on this deal are?