Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign-up here.
Heading To The Exit
Head of Right Media Exchange and tireless Yahoo! advocate, Ramsey McGrory, has decided to move on. Yahoo! confirms McGrory’s departure and offered no comment on a replacement. Sources say the announcement was made to RMX employees internally yesterday. McGrory was the last (or one of the last) remaining of the original Right Media Exchange executives. He came to Yahoo! after RMX’s acquisition in 2007. Former CEO Mike Walrath (venture investor and startup board member) and MediaBank CEO and digital sage Bill Wise are among the others who have exited. No word on what’s next for McGrory. Meanwhile, former GM Tony Katsur has left MediaMath. A spokesman for the demand-side platform company confirmed the news and says Katsur will remain part of its advisory board, while Roland Cozzolino, MediaMath’s CTO, and Tom Craig, Head of Engineering & Data, will continue to drive development of the company’s buying platform. Katsur’s next move is shrouded as well – for now.
Mobile Ads Grow-eth
Mobile analytics and monetization platform company Flurry claims new data shows “all US display Internet ad spending can be absorbed by available iOS and Android app inventory. Staggering growth of devices and app usage, in primarily the last 2 years, now make mobile apps a significant, viable and attractive channel for advertisers.” Read more and see the charts.
ValueClick And Dotomi
ValueClick announced that it has completed the acquisition of Dotomi and offered one tidbit on near term revenue from the transaction: “For the one month period ended September 30, 2011, ValueClick anticipates that Dotomi will contribute approximately $8.5 million in revenue.” Read the entire release.
In a move that appears to be aimed at improving the quality of AdSense publishers as well as cut down on fraud, the Inside AdSense blog announced, “After a new application is submitted, we’ll begin with preliminary checks on the site and the applicant’s submitted details. If the application passes through this first stage, we’ll notify the applicant by email, grant them account access, and provide them with ad code…” Automation meets manual. Read more.
With Acquisitions, Layoffs…
The Business Insider reports that online marketing company Adknowledge has had to lay off some staffers after its recent buying spree. Adknowledge CEO Scott Lynn tells TBI: “The company has recently completed integrating the acquisitions of Miva Media, Super Rewards, and Hydra. The integration of these assets required that 18 positions be eliminated without cause within its U.S. operations. Read more.
Anti-Trust Blockage
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has its anti-trust fangs out as Bloomberg reports that the DOJ “sued to block AT&T Inc.’s proposed $39 billion takeover of T-Mobile USA Inc., saying the deal would ‘substantially lessen competition’ in the wireless market.” Read more. Let’s put on our fantasy ad tech hats for a moment. Could the DOJ say that Google’s acquisition of Admeld “substantially lessens competition” in display advertising? Still doesn’t seem possible from here, but who knows?
UDID Conundrum
MediaPost’s Laurie Sullivan says that mobile ad networks are busy trying to figure out what’s next given Apple’s recent announcement that UDID access (helps enable tracking on iOs/Apple devices) will be shutdown to third parties. Mobclix’ Krishna Subramanian told Sullivan that “mobile ad networks have been in discussions to find a workaround. Leveraging the Mac address could become one solution.” Read more.
But Wait. There’s More!
- Havas cautious on acquisition strategy – FT.com
- Google lists [x+1] as the oldest company to become a DSP – [x+1] blog
- Trust and Safety: Best Practices for Demand Partners – Right Media blog
- Tracking the Hiring Funnel – ThisIsGoingToBeBig blog
