SingTel-owned Amobee buys Adconion, Kontera to boost digital advertising might

SingTel-owned digital advertising group, Amobee, has attributed its acquisition of digital marketing players, Adconion and Kontera, to the growing need for scale to deliver real-time and more personalised marketing to consumers.

Amobee, which provides a digital advertising platform for advertisers, publishers and mobile operators, announced its intention to purchase the two companies this week. It claimed the deals will strengthen the company’s position as the leading providing of mobile-led digital marketing technology solutions for global advertising.

Adconion provides cross-channel advertising technology encompassing display, video, email and social. The Amobee deal includes its Australian and North American businesses and is valued at US$235 million, or a payable amount of $209m excluding debt.

Kontera provides a real-time digital content analytics platform for mobile, Web and social networks, and has offices in the US, UK and Israel. The purchase price is set at $150m.

Commenting on the acquisitions, Forrester senior analyst, Clement Teo, noted that mobile and digital advertising technologies are the engines of growth for advertisers.

“As more users get locked in a 'contextual mobile moment of need', the opportunity to insert highly personal, contextualised advertising will be the goal for all brands,” he said. “SingTel has made a good bet, but it remains to be seen how it will use the new digital tools to add value for its clients.”

Amobee chairman and CEO of Group Digital Life, Allen Lew, said the amalgamation of the three businesses will help it to deliver more comprehensive marketing campaigns for brands and advertisers across multiple channels.

“These acquisitions will further differentiate Amobee and help solidify its position in the digital advertising market,” Lew said in a statement.

The SingTel Group offers communication solutions globally and has customer relationships with more than 500 million mobile customers.

Adconion Direct CEO and president of the Adconion Media Group, Kim Perell, saw the deal as a way of becoming the leader in global digital marketing technology.

“Data has become the essential ingredient to successfully reach the right customers with the right message at the right time”, added Kontera CEO, Yoav Shaham. “Being a part of Amobee, we can more fully leverage our real-time content analysis platform across the entire digital ecosystem, enabling CMOs to measure and evaluate the success of their brand in ways never possible before.”

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