• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, September 17, 2013

Mobile ad network Millennial Media on Tuesday announced the launch of its own mobile ad exchange in partnership with real-time bidding (RTB) platform AppNexus.

The companies said the Millennial Media Exchange (MMX) would be the largest “premium’ mobile advertising marketplace and would allow advertisers to buy mobile inventory more efficiently and at scale. The move comes only a month after Millennial acquired mobile ad network Jumptap, in part to strengthen its programmatic buying capability.

Jumptap and other automated ad buyers will now be able to bid on app developers’ inventory in real-time through the Millennial exchange. As to whether Millennial would favor bids placed through Jumptap, the company’s EVP of global sales, Mollie Spilman, recently told Ad Age that no preference would be given.

The launch of the Millennial exchange, which had been delayed from earlier this year, also comes on the heels of Twitter’s reported $350 million acquisition of mobile RTB platform MoPub, and further underscores the shift toward programmatic ad buying in mobile.