Millennial Media took a big step towards its goal of becoming the world’s largest independent mobile ad exchange by acquiring Nexage for $107.5 million.
Nexage is a provider of real-time bidding (RTB) technology for mobile ads, and its acquisition will add to Millennial Media’s suite of programmatic mobile ad offerings for brands.
“We are in a very exciting time right now as we help to build, educate and advance the role of RTB and programmatic solutions to advertisers, publishers, and developers,” said Michael Barrett, President and CEO of Millennial Media. “Our vision is to create a full-stack solution that enables us to open the flow of impressions, operate a leading independent exchange, and maximize the yield for our publishers.”
Here are the new capabilities the Nexage acquisition will give Millennial Media:
(via Millennial Media’s blog)
Increasing yield for publishers via expertise and scale
Nexage’s offerings will complement Millennial Media’s demand from agencies and advertisers with a complete programmatic marketplace. Nexage’s marketplace includes:
A leading programmatic platform that allows Demand Side Platforms (DSPs) and trading desks to buy ad impressions via programmatic direct, private exchange and RTB auctions.
- A Supply Side Platform (SSP) and mediation solution that allows publishers to expose impressions to classic networks – including the Facebook Audience Network, Google’s Admob, and iAd. In total, Nexage is connected to over 225 programmatic buyers and networks, providing one of the most complete mobile monetization solutions globally.
- An ad server that publishers and developers can utilize to launch directly-sold campaigns.
Allowing advertisers to buy impressions programmatically
Millennial Media is known for its full service global sales, service, and creative teams. These teams are able to provide consultative sales based on their deep relationships with marketers and agencies. Following the Nexage acquisition, Millennial Media will be in a position to enable buyers to execute deals via public and private RTB auctions and programmatic direct deals.
Enabling data and audience buying
With Millennial Media’s existing data management platform (DMP) as its backbone, the two companies will be in a distinct position to enrich impressions through first and third party data. Millennial Media’s mobile-first DMP can ingest publisher and advertiser data to enable re-targeting, audience extensions, and cross-device attribution.
