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In its largest acquisition, Twitter is spending about $350m in stock for mobile ad exchange MoPub. The bit of portfolio expansion into the fast-growing market comes as Twitter reportedly readies itself for an IPO, which is widely expected for next year. The deal brings Twitter instant access to two of the biggest trends in digital marketing – programmatic buying and mobile advertising.
Despite the growing popularity of those two trends, there are few companies focused on doing both. That scarcity likely contributed to the rich price Twitter is paying for a company that started selling less than two years ago. Aside from MoPub and its closet competitor, Nexage, there aren’t any notable ad exchanges dedicated to mobile. As interest in mobile advertising has grown, so has MoPub’s revenue, which we understand will be $20-25m in the current quarter.
This is the fifth mobile-related acquisition (out of nine total) by Twitter in the past 12 months. We would note that the breakdown in Twitter’s deal flow mirrors the activity of its users, 60% of which access the social network via a mobile device at least once a month.
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