Contact: Scott Denne
Flashtalking reaches for Encore Media Metrics, a provider of advertising attribution and analytics, as it looks to challenge Google’s dominant position as the preeminent third-party ad server. The company has a footprint in the ad serving business through its creative capabilities, though it typically trails Google’s DoubleClick for Advertisers (DFA) ad server. Flashtalking hopes that with this deal, along with the recent purchase of Germany-based device-fingerprinting firm Device[9], the combination of its creative optimization and data capture and analysis capabilities will be enough to gain traction as a primary ad server.
The acquisition of Encore Media is likely modest in size. The target appears to have just a handful of employees and is mostly being bought to roll the technology into Flashtalking’s ad server. In those ways it is similar to Device[9], which Flashtalking snagged in September. The pair of transactions are the only two it has made since TA Associates took a majority stake in the firm in August 2013.
Flashtalking’s bid to carve away at DFA’s dominant position is ambitious. Other ad servers have fallen short in previous attempts to dislodge DFA, and Flashtalking’s own attempt comes at a time when Facebook is also making a push for this corner of the ad market. There are, however, reasons to think it could be successful. For one, a company of its size need only capture a modest overall share to reap outsized gains. Also, as programmatic advertising gains momentum, particularly among ad agencies, data-driven advertising rises alongside it. Flashtalking is betting that it can leverage its relationships and track record as a secondary ad server into a primary position.
We’ll have a full report on this deal in tomorrow’s 451 Market Insight.
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