WSJ reports that Microsoft’s MSN is in talks to buy mobile advertising company Third Screen Media, no price was given but the advertisers revenue was estimated at less than $10 million per year. Mind you, MSN wouldn’t be buying based on current revenue but rather on Third Screen Media’s technology and customers (such as USA Today and The Weather Channel). It’s just talks, not a deal, it could still fall through. For several years, Microsoft has used TSM to deliver text and small banner ads for its Hotmail mobile service
“Expanding the mobile-ad business is “part of our long term strategic play,” Mr. Doran said…”I do believe that there is a clear advantage in being a first mover,” in areas like mobile advertising”.
This is part of Microsoft’s strategy to move into advertising: “Microsoft’s long-term goal is to tie mobile advertising into an automated service that would let advertisers place ads in mobile phones, videogames, Web-search results and perhaps other areas…That system, called adCenter, is under development and can currently only connect advertisers with Web search.”
The market is going to get bigger though, and companies that offer advertising on the web are going to have to work out ways to get those ads to show on mobiles, not just to avoid annoying customers cruising into the site on a handset but to get past gatekeepers like Skweezer and Opera Mini…
Rafat adds: There hasn’t been much consolidation activity in the mobile advertising space, at least in U.S., mainly because the field is so nascent. Two examples I can think of:
— Mobile marketing company Ipsh got bought out by Diversified Agency Services, a unit of ad agency giant Omnicom Group, last year.
— Mobile content tech company NeoMedia has been buying mobile marketing and ad companies left, right and center…here’s one example and more at the end of the post.
Related stories:
–Third Screen Media Secures $5 Million in Series B Funding
–Mobile Firm Builds Ad Management Suite for Publishers
–MSNBC.com To Launch Ad-Supported Mobile News Service
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