Mobile advertising platform Opera Mediaworks has acquired Apprupt, a German mobile advertising service provider.
The move was billed as allowing Opera Mediaworks greater access to Germany’s mobile ad market, which the company said it expected to reach $1.8 billion by 2017.
“If you look at global ad spend . . . Germany is a top five market in the world,” said Opera Mediaworks CEO Mahi de Silva. Apprupt is said to bring 22 million users and 250 existing customers in German-speaking markets, including Austria and Switzerland.
Apprupt customers include major publishers such as News Corp. and Dow Jones, which de Silva said could be more efficiently served through acquisition. Apprupt customers will also get “access to a broader platform, they’ll get the scale and the breadth and depth of services,” he said.
Based in Dusseldorf and Hamburg, Germany, Apprupt was founded in 2008 and has more than 40 employees.
In March, de Silva hinted at upcoming acquisition plans and the company’s focus on geographic expansion. In searching for new acquisitions, “we’ve been focused on where the ad markets are,” he told AdExchager at the time, “and looking at where various geographies are in market and audience size.”
Apprupt is the eighth acquisition by Opera Mediaworks since 2010, joining AdMarvel, Mobile Theory, 4th Screen Advertising, Handster and HUNT Mobile Ads. When Argentina-based HUNT’s acquisition was announced in January, the company said it provided better access to Latin America.
De Silva said Opera Mediaworks will continue to look for acquisition opportunities in the coming year.
A subsidiary of Norway-based Opera Software, Opera Mediaworks has headquarters in Silicon Valley and offices worldwide.
