MoPub, a privately-held, startup that helps mobile publishers manage their ad inventory, has been acquired by Twitter, giving the social network another route into building its advertising business, specifically on mobile platforms.
MoPub was launched three years ago by Bryan Atwood, Nafis Jamal, and CEO Jim Payne with a mission: to enable great content by powering advertising for the world’s mobile publishers. They had a firm belief that programmatic buying and a strong commitment to serve the publisher would enable the development of a new ads economy in mobile. Since that time, their team has grown to nearly one hundred employees worldwide, and their platform has grown to serve billions of mobile ads every month around the world on behalf of publishers.
According to TechCrunch the company was acquired for $350 million in stock and Twitter won out over other bidders like ad network Millennial Media, which itself has been making more acquisitions, like JumpTap last month for $200 million. We’re also hearing that if you look at the prices that Twitter shares are trading for on secondary markets, the deal could actually be worth significantly more.
If accurate, the deal is a significant acquisition for Twitter, which has been sharpening its focus on revenue generation — specifically by running advertising across its platform in the form of promoted Tweets, ad retargeting services and more.
MoPub’s CEO, Jim Payne, made the following public statement:
“Today, I am excited to announce that MoPub has agreed to be acquired by Twitter. Like MoPub, Twitter has been “mobile first” since their inception, which makes our two companies a natural match. It’s important to underscore that our commitment to you, the publisher, will not change. In fact, it will be strengthened. Twitter will invest in our core business and we will continue to build the tools and technology you need to better run your mobile advertising business.”
Payne continued, “In addition to investing in new capabilities for our publisher platform, we believe there are opportunities to bring better native advertising to the mobile ecosystem. With the support of the team and resources of Twitter, we’ll be able to move even more quickly towards the realization of our original vision.”
“We can’t wait to ‘join the flock’ and continue to build incredible products for publishers. It’s been an amazing ride – and it’s just getting started,” Payne concluded.
MoPub was incubated at AngelPad and raised money from AdMob-backer Accel Partners, along with Harrison Metal Capital, Jafco Ventures, and others. They have raised about $18.5 million total. The company’s products include the MoPub Marketplace, a real-time bidding exchange that helps advertisers bid for impressions the moment they become available. Back in May, the company announced that it had reached a $100 million revenue run rate. A source familiar with the business said the company has about a 25 percent gross margin. MoPub customers include WordPress, Flixster, Ngmoco, and OpenTable.
Over the past few months, the company has also rolled out updates aimed at making it easier for MoPub publishers to manage ads from multiple networks.
Research Director at Gartenr, Brian Blau, who studies social media, said that the purchase makes Twitter a bigger player in online advertising. “It will help give them access to advertisers that don’t have yet,” he said. “And that’s important as the company considers an IPO, Blau said. “They need to make sure they are firing on all cylinders.”