Christian Louca

My Comments on the below article:

It has been reported by Globes Online (an Israeli Business news site) that Amobee have bought UK’s Ring Ring Media.  At first glance this seems a strange acquisition.  After all, Amobee are an ad-serving company and Ring Ring Media are ultimately a planning and buying agency for mobile.  They do not have a media network and act more like an exchange.  I question the value behind such an acquisition and what the strategy is?  Maybe Amobee feel they will be better placed to be able to offer an advertising sales resource alongside their technology?  No doubt Amobee will now position itself as full service, but in my opinion this would not be entirely true.  Will RingRing just plan and buy media with Amobee partners or will they continue as they are?  What guarantees could Amobee give to its partners for advertising, if any?  If RingRing were to prioritise Amobee partners, their focus will mainly be on placing advertisements on the network operator portals, yet the market spend has shifted from ‘on portal’ to ‘off portal’. I’m sure that Amobee have good reasons behind the acquisition, but as I say, at first glance it doesn’t seem to be a natural choice – I’d love to hear more from them!

Tweet this

Posted By, Shiri Habib-Valdhorn13 Jan 10 11:15

CEO Levkovitz: After the deal, Amobee will be larger than firms acquired by Apple and Google in this field.

Israeli mobile advertising solutions developer Amobee Media System Ltd. has acquired British mobile advertising agency RingRing Media Ltd. Amobee did not disclose the size of the deal, but market sources believe that it will pay more than $15 million. Amobee expects to close the acquisition during the first quarter.

With the acquisition, Amobee is following the lead of industry giants Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG) and Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL). Google acquired AdMob for $750 million in November 2009, and Apple acquired Quattro for $275 million last week.

RingRing Media’s 20 employees will join Amobee’s staff, which currently number 70.

Herzliya-based Amobee has developed a platform for adapting advertising campaigns to all mobile formats, including SMS and MMS, video clips, music, mobile internet, and mobile games.

Amobee CEO Zohar Levkovitz told “Globes”, “RingRing Media is the world’s largest mobile advertising agency. It’s profitable, with over $20 million in annual revenue, and more than four billion advertisements a month.”

Levkovitz added, “As in every field, the mobile advertising market has supply and demand. The supply comes from mobile operators, and Appstores, and independent websites where ads can be placed. Demand comes from advertisers who want to buy advertising space.

“Amobee has technology tailored for mobile operators, and RingRing works with advertisers. This acquisition will turn Amobee into a full-service provider.”

Amobee’s customers include Telefonica SA (NYSE: TEF; IBEX:TEF; LSE:TDE) and Vodafone Group plc (LSE; Nasdaq: VOD). Levkovitz says that RingRing’s customers include some of the largest mobile advertisers, one of which is “an important mobile telephone manufacturer and another is a very large beverages firm.”

Levkovitz added that, following the acquisition, Amobee will launch a mobile advertising exchange product that will link supply and demand.

Commenting on previous acquisitions in the mobile advertising market, he said, “When the acquisition is completed, Amobee will be larger than the companies acquired by Apple and Google in this field.”

“Globes” named Amobee as Israel’s most promising start-up in 2008. In December, the World Economic Forum named the company as a Technology Pioneer 2010.

URL link to Globes:

http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000530271&fid=942