Apple Makes $13 Billion In Q4; OwnerIQ Buys DiJiPOP For Shopper Marketing

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Apple Teller Machine

Apple made enough money in the fourth quarter to buy the startup ad tech ecosystem and ad holding company or two. From the release, “The Company posted record quarterly revenue of $46.33 billion and record quarterly net profit of $13.06 billion, or $13.87 per diluted share.” Analysts had thought Apple would make $10.06 per share on revenue of $39 billion according to CNET. iPhone was Apple’s Q4 killer app.

Another Acquisition

More ad tech company acquisitions! – or mergers to be exact. Shopper marketing company DiJiPOP (AdExchanger.com Q&A) has been acquired by ownership targeting company OwnerIQ. Also, OwnerIQ let a few details go in the press release as it says its “revenue has nearly quadrupled in the past year, as agencies have made increasing use of the company’s ability to reach consumers based on ownership signals.” Read more.

Looking At LUMA

On the Perfect Market blog, and in Powerpoint format, CEO Julie Schoenfeld offers “a simplified version of the LUMAscape (online ad ecosystem map) by focusing on the 6 major functions involved in the display ad value chain.” And there are no logos! See it. Schoenfeld sees “drastic” changes ahead for the ecosystem.

AllCash

In the New York Post, Keith Kelly reports that Meredith is expanding its food footprint as it has acquired AllRecipes.com for $175 million from Reader’s Digest Association. Kelly writes, “The site, which was modestly profitable on revenues of just under $30 million a year, drew 25.4 million unique visitors in December, according to comScore. That was a whopping 5 million more than No. 2 site Foodnetwork.com, which had 19.7 million visitors.” Let the CPG ad dollars flow. Read more.

Still More For Retail

Loyalty audience platform, Adara Media, announced that it has taken in over $12 million in new funding to drive growth. CEO Layton Han (AdExchanger.com Q&A) said in the release that, in part, his company will “use the funding to take the TruPrecision platform into new vertical categories. The company’s growth in 2011 has come from travel, hospitality and closely related verticals.” Read more.

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The Meta Fraud Tithe; AI Is Out-Negotiating SaaS

Verifying Video Ads

Digiday’s Mike Shields discusses the ad verification business with AdSafe Media and its CEO Scott Knoll. Shields inquires about AdSafe’s video ad verification product to which AdSafe’s Knoll responds, “We have a bunch of video-network clients. So that says something. But the reality is, we’ve had mixed results trying to look at the video itself and trying to figure out if something is appropriate [content/context-wise]. We’ve done all kinds of testing, looking at meta tages, pages, keywords words. We found that 99 percent of the time there is a correlation between a video’s content and other info we pull from the page it appears on.” Read it.

Dow Jones Intent Index

Twelvefold Media (formerly BuzzLogic) announced its new “Mindset Index” where the idea is to pull in all those unstructured bits of data on you and me and turn them into insights on intent such as “looking to shop,” “deal seeker,” “expert advice seeker” or “loves AdExchanger.” Read the Twelvefold blog post.

Give Me Malware.. Protection!

Twitter appears to be taking proactive on protecting its own ad tech strategy by acquiring a company called Dasient in order to beat back the scourge of the data-driven world: malware! Wired’s Mike Isaac writes, “Dasient is a leader in the prevention of ‘malvertising,’ the practice of incorporating malicious code and links to harmful sites into ad content. The ruse is similar to the standard hacker technique of luring an unsuspecting web surfer into clicking on a malicious link.” Read more.

And The Results Are In

Yahoo! Q4 2011 earnings are coming your way on Thursday after the market’s close. Get ’em here. Citi’s Mark Mahaney suggests what to watch for in a note to investors: “1) New CEO Scott Thompson’s early commentary; 2) any discussion on strategic alternatives—we continue to think an Asian asset cash-rich split would be the best option if Yahoo! is not able to sell the entire company; 3) color on headcount and costs given recent reports that a hiring freeze and workforce reduction may be coming (AllThingsD); 4) signs of sales force traction in display; and 5) signs of RPS improvements.”

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