Google To Acquire AdMob For $750 Million

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Google announced Monday that it will acquire AdMob, a mobile display ad technology provider, for $750 million in stock. The Mountain View, Calif. company says the deal improves on its existing expertise and technology in mobile advertising, while also giving advertisers and publishers more choice.

Google expects the deal to help it develop more effective tools for creating, serving and analyzing emerging mobile ad formats on mobile phones. As mobile advertising and content continue to grow, the company expects the market will give advertisers better access to mobile users through AdMob's ad formats.

Susan Wojcicki, vice president of product management at Google, in a prepared statement admits that "mobile advertising has enormous potential as a marketing medium, and while this industry is still in the early stages of development, AdMob has already made exceptional progress in a very short time."

For publishers and developers, the deal gives them a method to monetize content more effectively, which has benefits for all companies that support mobile content. Consumers will be served up more relevant ads, and ultimately gain access to more ad-supported content and applications to improve the mobile experience.

Google executives are not the only people in the industry who believe the deal supports its strength in the mobile channel. "The AdMob acquisition is Google's message to Microsoft that Redmond won't hold an exclusive reign over the mobile marketplace," says Mark Simon, vice president of industry relations at Didit.

Aaron Goldman, managing partner at Connectual, tells Online Media Daily that Eric Schmidt has long touted the potential of mobile, admitting he believes the mobile Web will become bigger than the computer-based Web. "Google has already made investments on the back-end with Android, and is co-marketing the new Droid handset from Verizon," he says. "It's only logical the company would invest in the advertising side of the mobile business."

Goldman says AdMob fits the Google model of playing middleman between marketers and publishers. And it's likely that Google will succeed in mobile where it failed in radio and print largely due to the signal that exists with a two-way platform. In other words, Google can tell how people respond to marketing messages in this channel and optimize accordingly.

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0 comments on "Google To Acquire AdMob For $750 Million".

1. Brian Zimmerman from Media Sales Works
   

   commented on: November 9, 2009 at 3:21 p.m.

   OMG, where are antitrust folks? Omar, FTEs & VCs just got very rich on Google controlling WAY too much of digital advertising ecosystem. Unbelievable but not really...Eric Schmidt doesn't curry favor w/ Obama for no reason. Hum, maybe GOOG can just pay for healthcare reform costs in American since they do such a good job of first-move-don't-allow-level-playing-field competition. The GOOG Monster is ALL about "control"...antitrust be damned.

2. Eric Melchor from Smart Digital Spending
   

   commented on: November 9, 2009 at 3:38 p.m.

   Wow! Looks like Google will soon be the one stop shop for all digital advertisement needs.

   To download a complete directory of 30+ mobile ad networks that includes their profile, geographies covered, contact info and more, go to FoneGigsBlog.com.

   Eric
   http://fonegigsblog.com/

3. Howie Goldfarb from Howie Goldfarb
   

   commented on: November 9, 2009 at 6:09 p.m.

   I find this surprising. Eric Schmidt the CEO was interviewed recently by Business Week. He mentioned Mobile, and the desire to get involved with mobile advertising. Yet his idea of Mobile Advertising made me think he is not qualified to even be a janitor at Google. I know the guy is smart, just not about Mobile. So my guess is this guy hired someone very talented to make these decisions.

   Apple has a significant advantage to Google. Google lives to serve Ads. Apple lives to sell technology. So while every time someone creates Ad Blocking Software, it hurts Google and not Apple. And with the Tablet in the works with a larger screen for video/TV/Web in the works from Apple I would be betting on the technology to win vs Advertising just like it is winning the Mobile Phone arena.

4. Matt Ellsworth from FLMSC Inc.
   

   commented on: November 9, 2009 at 8:29 p.m.

   Other than the beta of google adsense for mobile which gave some great ads - admob was the only other mobile ad network I had ever heard of.

   Granted the ads that admob keeps showing me kind of suck.

5. Tamara Gruber from Crisp Wireless
   

   commented on: November 10, 2009 at 8:47 p.m.

   I disagree. AdMob serves the long-tail of mobile advertising and is a natural fit to extend Google's performance-based advertising into the iPhone market. However, performance advertising is just one segment of the market. This deal doesn't address the premium marketplace or mobile rich media.

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