Mobile marketing company Augme Technologies has agreed to acquire mobile technology firm Jagtag for $5.3 million. The deal is expected to close this month, said David Apple, CMO of Augme, on July 20.
Apple added that the goal of the Jagtag acquisition is to acquire talent as well as technology. In addition to Jagtag’s development staff, he said that the company’s MMS technology suite and owned patents are of particular value to Augme, a “heavy patent holder,” said Apple.
“There’s no reason for them to be in the marketplace without us,” he said,” because we complement what they do; they complement what we do.”
Jagtag’s MMS technology will help Augme’s consumer packaged goods clients, such as Kellogg Co., that do not want to isolate their customers who own feature phones, said Apple. He added that Jagtag’s MMS technology will enable those marketers to communicate with a broader range of consumers without sacrificing multimedia functionality.
In June, Jagtag patented a system to serve MMS ads based on a consumer’s opted-in profile information and location. Apple said that Jagtag’s patented technology also compiles environmental factors related to an MMS campaign, such as weather, so that marketers can see if those factors affected an effort’s results.
“If you combine that with the tracking mechanisms that we have on the back-end, you could associate push and lift, sales data and program data and make quite a few more strategic analyses on results,” he said.
Jagtag also works on marketers’ barcode- and quick response code-enabled campaigns. Its clients include Unilever, PepsiCo., Estée Lauder and Sony USA.
The Jagtag brand will continue to exist, said Apple, but all Jagtag employees will be relocated to Augme’s New York headquarters, where they will report to Augme managers. Jagtag’s headquarters is located in Princeton, NJ, and it has an office in Seattle.
Jagtag CEO Ed Jordan will serve as CFO of Augme and report to CEO Paul Arena, said Apple.
