Home Social Media Google to Buy Wildfire for $250M. What Will Facebook Do?
Social Media

Google to Buy Wildfire for $250M. What Will Facebook Do?

By

SHARE:

wildfireSocially persistent Google will buy Wildfire Interactive for approximately $25o million. The deal comes just a few months after Google reportedly sniffed around Wildfire competitor Buddy Media, before Buddy sold to Salesforce.

(Read Google’s blog post)

The deal hasn’t closed  but sources tell AdExchanger that Google doesn’t expect the need for regulatory review and hopes to finalize things in short order.

Clients like Virgin and Spotify use Wildfire’s tools to manage presence and advertising on social platforms, including Twitter, YouTube, Google+, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. Soaring above them all is Facebook, and around Facebook swirls the big question about this deal.

Wildfire is a preferred marketing developer for Facebook’s Insights, Apps, and Pages qualification areas. Facebook now faces a decision about whether to revoke that certification to prevent Google from gaining access to its platform APIs, its infrastructure, and its advertiser data. Doing so would be in keeping with Facebook’s history of Google-blocking. Over the last two years, Facebook has denied requests by Google’s DoubleClick to be certified though its third party ad tracking program. More recently it excluded Google DSP Invite Media from the nascent Facebook Exchange RTB marketplace, while opening it up to nine rival DSPs.

But the Facebook awkwardness doesn’t end there. Not only does Wildfire access and make money on the Facebook platform, Facebook is a direct client. As CEO Victoria Ransom told AdExchanger in June, “They use Wildfire’s technology to manage over 30 of their own brand pages, which is exciting for us, and a great validation.”

Facebook hasn’t responded to an information request, but it’s probably a good bet Facebook will at the very least migrate its internal Pages management away from Google. It will be a waiting game to see if Wildfire is shown the door in other ways as well.

It’s also interesting to consider a possible overlap between Wildfire and Meebo, which Google agreed to buy last month. Meebo is being integrated with Google+, where Meebo’s experience developing the Meebo Bar social plugin across hundreds of websites will enhance the struggling Google+’s ties to publishers.

Underlying both deals is content – the ways it’s shared by users, publishers, and brands. Google wants to be as close to that sharing as possible, ideally by owning the user experience.

But if that fails, hey, there’s always the ecosystem.

Must Read

The FTC's latest staff report has strong message for social media and streaming video platforms: Stop engaging in the "vast surveillance" of consumers.
Privacy

FTC Denounces Social Media And Video Streaming Platforms For ‘Privacy-Invasive’ Data Practices

The FTC’s latest staff report has strong message for social media and streaming video platforms: Stop engaging in the “vast surveillance” of consumers.

Publishers

Publishers Feel Seen At The Google Ad Tech Antitrust Trial

Publishers were encouraged to see the DOJ highlight Google’s stranglehold on the ad server market and its attempts to weaken header bidding.

Albert Thompson, Managing Director, Digital at Walton Isaacson
Agencies

To Cure What Ails Digital Advertising, Marketers And Publishers Must Get Back To Basics

Albert Thompson, a buy-side veteran with 20+ years of experience, weighs in on attention metrics, the value of MFA sites, brand safety backlash and how publishers can improve their inventory.

Privacy! Commerce! Connected TV! Read all about it. Subscribe to AdExchanger Newsletters
A comic depiction of Google's ad machine sucking money out of a publisher.
Google antitrust trial

DOJ vs. Google, Day Five Rewind: Prebid Reality Check, Unfair Rev Share And Jedi Blue (Sorta)

Someone will eventually need to make a Netflix-style documentary about the Google ad tech antitrust trial happening in Virginia. (And can we call it “You’ve Been Ad Served?”)

Comic: Alphabet Soup
Online Advertising

Buried DOJ Evidence Reveals How Google Dealt With The Trade Desk

In the process of the investigation into Google, the Department of Justice unearthed a vast trove of separate evidence. Some of these findings paint a whole new picture of how Google interacts and competes with its main DSP rival, The Trade Desk.

Comic: The Unified Auction
Google antitrust trial

DOJ vs. Google, Day Four: Behind The Scenes On The Fraught Rollout Of Unified Pricing Rules

On Thursday, the US district court in Alexandria, Virginia boarded a time machine back to April 18, 2019 – the day of a tense meeting between Google and publishers.

Popular

  1. CTV

    Roku Launches Its Own Self-Serve Ad Platform

    On Wednesday, Roku became the latest streaming company to unveil a self-serve ad platform. Roku Ads Manager, as it’s called, is part of Roku’s bid to reach new CTV buyer demand.

  2. Publishers

    Publishers Feel Seen At The Google Ad Tech Antitrust Trial

    Publishers were encouraged to see the DOJ highlight Google’s stranglehold on the ad server market and its attempts to weaken header bidding.

  3. Programmatic

    New DEI-Focused SSP Wants To Put More Money Into The Hands Of Publishers

    Programmatic media buyers care about serving the needs of their advertiser clients. But there’s no reason they can’t also help publishers – especially diverse publishers – at the same time.

  4. The FTC's latest staff report has strong message for social media and streaming video platforms: Stop engaging in the "vast surveillance" of consumers.
    Privacy

    FTC Denounces Social Media And Video Streaming Platforms For ‘Privacy-Invasive’ Data Practices

    The FTC’s latest staff report has strong message for social media and streaming video platforms: Stop engaging in the “vast surveillance” of consumers.

  5. Comic: Peak RMN
    commerce

    Retailers Are Opening Themselves To Programmatic – But Will They Regret It?

    Most retailers are long past withholding their shopper data from programmatic tech. They prefer the low-hanging fruit. But was that a good decision?