Not to be outdone by eBay’s acquisition of a mobile advertising services provider last week , online marketer ValueClick has picked up one of its own.
ValueClick announced today that it will pay about $70 million in cash for the brand-focused mobile ad network Greystripe, Inc. With its own online ad network (ValueClick Media) and the affiliate network Commission Junction already in the mix, the new move should provide ValueClick with immediate results a fast-growing U.S. mobile advertising market that’s worth more than $1 billion already.
“Greystripe accelerates ValueClick’s move ‘up the marketing funnel’ with brand advertisers and gives ValueClick Media immediate scale and expertise in the large and fast-growing mobile ad market,” said Jim Zarley, ValueClick CEO. “We see great traffic and revenue synergies between ValueClick and Greystripe, and we’re looking forward to working closely with the Greystripe team to take full advantage of the opportunities that this combination offers.”
So what exactly is ValueClick getting for that $70 million?
Greystripe, which is headquartered in San Francisco and supported by office in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle and Detroit as well, has a proprietary advertising platform that serves up billions of rich media impressions to more than 30 million touch-screen devices users nationwide through 3,500 different application titles and mobile sites. The company has also established solid relationships with a host of Fortune 500 advertisers across a host of verticals, including retail, entertainment, technology, consumer products and automotive.
All of that bodes well for ValueClick, which expects Greystripe to account for between $24-26 million in revenue for the year.
As a result of the transaction, Greystripe’s management team and pool of employees will be retained and the group will now be run as a wholly-owned subsidiary of ValueClick Media.
“All of us at Greystripe are proud of our accomplishments, and joining ValueClick positions us to accelerate our rapid growth in mobile brand advertising,” said Michael Chang, CEO of Greystripe. “We are thrilled to continue to serve our major brand clients as a mobile rich media leader while leveraging ValueClick’s breadth and depth in online marketing.”
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