Yahoo has bought ad technology firm Interclick for $270m (£169m), as it looks to boost its ailing online advertising business.
Interclick, with annual revenue of about $102m, helps advertisers identify online target audience through its open segment manager analytics platform.
The move comes as Yahoo itself is the subject of frenzied bidding speculation, with Google, Microsoft, News Corp and private equity firms and international consortiums all earmarked as potential bidders in recent weeks.
Interclick has built the industry’s leading data valuation platform optimized to work with large data volumes across multiple providers and marketplaces.
Interclick helps marketers navigate the complex data online ecosystem with tools such as Open Segment Manager (OSM) and its Genome Platform. These solutions were built to address the fundamental challenges of audience targeting by enabling a more holistic understanding of consumers through its deep integrations with leading data providers.
Yahoo said it expects to use interclick’s offerings for its own display advertising business. It will acquire unique data targeting capabilities, optimization technologies and new premium supply, as well as a team experienced in selling audiences across disparate sources of pooled supply.
“This investment underscores our focus on enhancing the performance of both our guaranteed and non-guaranteed display business across Yahoo and our partner sites and, combined with Yahoo!’s reach and advertising leadership, will deliver a powerful solution for marketers,” said Ross Levinsohn, EVP, Americas region. “interclick’s innovative platform will allow Yahoo! to expand its targeting and data capabilities to deliver campaigns with stronger performance metrics.”
“Having worked closely with Yahoo! for the past few years, we have a deep appreciation of the quality of the inventory that Yahoo! brings to market. The combination of Yahoo!’s premium data and inventory with our platforms will create tremendous value for clients,” said Michael Katz, founder and CEO of interclick. “I would personally like to thank our team, our clients and our Board who helped to make interclick the success it has become.”
“We believe that this is a great outcome for our shareholders,” said Michael Brauser, interclick Co-Chairman of the Board. “Michael Katz and his team have done a tremendous job over the past few years and I’m proud to have helped make this outcome a reality.”
The crowded advertising technology sector is dominated by a slew of small players and start-ups but has seen some of the biggest deals over the years.
Google bought DoubleClick, in 2007 for $3.1 billion while eBay acquired GSI Commerce for $2.4 billion earlier this year.
GCA Savvian Advisors LLC acted as the lead financial adviser to interclick in connection with the transaction.
www.interclick.com
