Yet more consolidation in the mobile advertising space, albeit a bit smaller than the two deals announced between Google/Admob and Apple/Quattro…
This one is from California-based ad network Amobee Media Systems, which is buying mobile ad buyer RingRing Media in the UK, in a cash-and-share deal. Other financial terms of the deal were not disclosed but Ben Tatton-Brown, the CEO of RingRing, told paidContent:UK that his company currently makes revenues of $2 million a month through its mobile media planning and buying activities.
The aim of the deal will be to create “the industry’s largest mobile advertising exchange,” according to the companies. (RingRing claims that in addition to its media buying business, it has established the world’s first mobile advertising exchange — athough other companies like Admob or Adfonic might dispute that.)
Amobee told the FT that the combined company will be bigger than Quattro in terms of revenues and ads served each month; figures from IDC, also in the FT, indicate that Quattro has $21 million in mobile ad revenues.
Amobee is unique among ad networks in that it is the only one that counts mobile operators among its shareholders: Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) and Telefonica (NYSE: TEF) both have minority stakes. Zohar Levkovitz, CEO of Amobee, says that these two make up the majority of Amobee’s business today, which is split 50 percent in Europe, 30 percent in the U.S. and 20 percent in Asia. Both RingRing and Amobee say they are profitable.
Amobee’s unique selling point, according to Levkovitz, is that because of its close relationship with operators – they use Amobee for display ad campaigns as well as bigger promotions using, for example SMS, but search ads are more likely left to companies like Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) and Google (NSDQ: GOOG) – they are able to provide advertisers with much more detail for targeted advertising, such as location and demographic information. In contrast, Levkovitz says that other networks can only provide operator and handset details.
“My belief is that there are some aspects that make mobile operators unique that no other co can take away: they have the reach, the information on their users and the billing relationship,” he said. “Not even Google can do that.”
Amobee’s VC investors include Accel Partners, Sequoia Capital, and Globespan. RingRing had to date only had un-named angel investment.

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