Yahoo! in a flurry to grow mobile ad sales
SAN FRANCISCO — Yahoo! is adding to its mobile line-up with the acquisition of analytics company Flurry, in a bid to beef up a fast-growing mobile advertising business that still lags those of Google and Facebook in scale.
SAN FRANCISCO — Yahoo! is adding to its mobile line-up with the acquisition of analytics company Flurry, in a bid to beef up a fast-growing mobile advertising business that still lags those of Google and Facebook in scale.
It is paying more than US$300 million (S$370 million) for the San Francisco-based start-up, people with knowledge of the matter said.
Flurry analyses data from smartphone users so developers can better understand their audiences and helps brands target ads on devices, giving Yahoo! more pathways for mobile promotions.
The company’s analytics are used by 170,000 developers globally and the deal will give Yahoo! important strategic insights into how various apps are used on the 1.4 billion mobile devices on which Flurry runs. Facebook gained similar insights when it bought Onavo, another leading analytics company, last year.
Yahoo! chief executive officer Marissa Mayer, who has called mobile a key part of her turnaround effort, has stepped up dealmaking as she looks to jump-start growth at the Web portal.
The company last year spent about US$1.1 billion on blogging platform Tumblr and has since bought several smaller companies, including mobile-homescreen provider Aviate and video-distribution platform RayV. Yahoo! has announced or completed at least 12 acquisitions this year, Bloomberg data showed.
“It ties right into Yahoo! and mobile first, and all of the investments we’re making into mobile today,” Mr Scott Burke, Yahoo’s senior vice-president of advertising technology, said in an interview. “Flurry is the next logical step to extend our reach. They have a great brand.” He declined to comment on the price of the deal.
Flurry will continue serving customers while collaborating with some of Yahoo!’s services, including advertising features, Mr Burke said, without being specific.
Yahoo! currently does not sell mobile ads beyond its own apps. Buying Flurry, which has advertising deals with about 8,000 apps, gives the Web giant an entry into that broader world, where Google, Facebook and Twitter are all competing for customers.
Agencies