Verve Group, the mobile ad tech unit of the gaming publisher Media and Games Invest (MGI), acquired the mobile gaming ad tech company Smaato on Tuesday for almost $170 million (140 million Euros). MGI Group, which trades on the Frankfurt stock exchange and a Stockholm-based Nasdaq exchange, updated its financial forecast after the Smaato deal […]
As the mobile app space matures and consolidates, one of its early entrants is floundering. Smaato just appointed its fourth CEO in a year after laying off 10% of its staff. Total headcount is down 20% from the beginning of last year, with the mobile exchange going from 240 to 190 employees. Ajitpal Pannu, who […]
Grindr and a handful of other dating apps are getting publicly pummeled for sharing personal user data, including location data and sexual preferences, with third-party companies. But Grindr, OKCupid, Tinder and others are not alone. The practice is pervasive among every type of app. A report released Tuesday by the Norwegian Consumer Council, an Oslo-based […]
Subscribe to AdExchanger Talks on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud or wherever you listen to podcasts. This week on AdExchanger Talks, Smaato CEO Arndt Groth discusses the changing rules of in-app advertising. The company – with offices in New York, Hamburg, Berlin, Singapore and Shanghai – has Chinese backers and a monetization deal with […]
Breaking into the China market requires feet on the ground painstakingly building direct relationships with local players, a fair amount of intestinal fortitude and patience. It also helps having a Chinese parent. Mobile ad exchange Smaato is capitalizing on its affiliation with Spearhead Integrated Marketing Communications Group, the Beijing-based offline marketing service provider that acquired […]
Snapchat is credited with jumpstarting the vertical video trend earlier this year, but now the format is really starting to hit its stride. That’s out of necessity, said Ari Brandt, CEO and co-founder of mobile ad platform MediaBrix, which on Thursday rolled out a new version of its SDK that supports vertically shot in-app video […]
Another day, another acquisition of a mobile company by a Chinese conglomerate. Publisher-focused mobile ad exchange Smaato will be snapped up by (this is a mouthful) Spearhead Integrated Marketing Communications Group, a Beijing-based offline marketing service provider. Spearhead will shell out $148 million on the deal, pending the usual approvals. Getting acquired by a Chinese […]
SDK mediation is still a major headache for developers. “We constantly hear from publishers that they want full control of their inventory – they don’t want to send their inventory into a black box,” said Ajitpal Pannu, chief business officer of mobile ad exchange Smaato, which on Wednesday launched a tool designed to act as an […]
CPG brands are starting to shell out more on mobile programmatic and the second quarter of 2014 seems to be the burgeoning proof. Mobile ad exchanges Smaato, Millennial Media and Nexage all saw noteworthy upticks in CPG mobile spend in Q2. A report released Tuesday based on global data gleaned from the Smaato exchange found […]
After a $25 million Series E injection, mobile ad exchange Smaato — a play on the word “smart” in Japanese — plans to focus on mobile acquisition and building out the self-service side of its automation platform. Smaato began rolling out its self-serve functionality about a year and a half ago. “Too many players are […]
Combined year-end results from four ad tech companies show that rich media, location-based targeting and increasing brand spend drove expansion in the mobile real-time bidding (RTB) space for the previous quarter. Global bid responses for both mobile Web and app inventory continue to grow, according to mobile RTB ad exchange Smaato. Based on activity across […]
Twitter’s acquisition of mobile supply-side platform MoPub this week could pave the way for more activity and something close to standard business models in the nascent mobile exchange space. Established desktop exchange players like the Rubicon Project and PubMatic, which have expansive networks on the sell side, have struggled to retrofit their existing platforms to […]
