KKR Buying Internet Brands; Singtel May Buy Kontera

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Publisher Going Up

Private equity firm KKR announced Tuesday that it will buy publisher Internet Brands from another private equity firm for around $1.1 billion, according to Reuters. Internet Brands sold for $640 million in 2010. KKR owns Internet domain registration firm GoDaddy.com, and Internet Brands operates CarsDirect, among other websites. With more than 100 million monthly visitors, Internet Brands receives most of its revenue from online ads. Read more. CarsDirect discussed display ad initiatives with AdExchanger in May.

Singtel Buying?

That’s what The Wall Street Journal says as telecom Singtel, which acquired Amobee in 2013 and funded Nexage in 2012 through its investment arm, may be ready to offer $160 million for Kontera – formerly known as a pay-per-click ad network (2010 AdExchanger article). Read more (subscription). Today, Kontera positions as a content marketing platform.

Online To Off

Rocket Fuel is stretching its digital media-buying platform offline with help from a new Nielsen Catalina Solutions (NCS) partnership. According to Rocket Fuel’s release, its platform’s connection to NCS’ in-store data will help advertisers “understand consumer purchases resulting from programmatically served ads via in-flight optimization.” Read more. Online to off and back again: an emerging industry theme.

Digital Shifting TV

In the past, GroupM’s media buying group has made select C7 agreements (for measuring time-shifted viewing over seven days) with broadcasters for specific clients, but will now expand it to a wider range of its clients during upfronts. Ad Age reports that both Fox and CBS confirmed they’ve struck C7 agreements with a major agency but declined to say which one. Read on. Under the current C3 model, “advertisers pay based on three days of commercial viewing,” says the WSJ (subscription).

Native’s Bright Future

In a roundup feature on the future of native advertising, Steve Edwards, digital sales director at Hearst UK, says, “Increasingly it’s about publishers taking control of the message and advertisers and brands coming along with us. Getting distribution right and getting measurement metrics right, how we actually measure success. How we can create work that is as good as the editorial that surrounds it. Take the logo off it, does it still work?” Digiday has more.

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When Strategics Strike

On Tuesday, Rubicon Project and Comcast (Comcast Ventures is an investor) announced a partnership to let marketers buy display ads programmatically for XFINITY.com and xfinityTV.com. Comcast VP Tom Straszewski explained, “The overlying need is that the advertising community is certainly looking for more efficient ways to purchase ad inventory, and particularly display inventory.” Straszewski added that Comcast will look to expand the offerings to programmatic mobile ad sales “once this relationship matures.” Read more via Adweek. And, read the release.

Data-Driven Results

VentureBeat VP for Product John Koestiert breaks down Adobe’s recent digital marketing optimization study in an article published on Tuesday. Koestiert says the most successful digital advertisers are not necessarily investing more than the competition. Data is the secret sauce. “Data-driven is most definitely the way to go. … Digital marketing is not just something for companies to throw money at. It’s a core competency to engrain in your DNA.” Read the story at VentureBeat. And survey results are here.

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