The day after purchasing Boston-based mobile ad firm Third Screen Media, AOL of Dulles announced another advertising-related acquisition: AdTech AG of Germany.
Financial terms of the arrangement were not disclosed.
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The company will operate as an independent subsidiary of AOL’s Advertising.com, the company said Wednesday, and has a reach of 25 countries.
The action is part of a surge of activity in the search engine arena to make purchases that can potentially generate ad revenue.
AOL’s acquisitions come after Mountain View, Calif.-based Google purchased DoubleClick, an ad management firm similar to AdTech, for $3.1 billion. Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo also announced the purchase of online advertising firm Right Media Inc. on April 30.
“It’s a bit of an arms race,” said Mike Cassidy, chief executive officer of the New York-based online advertising company Undertone Networks.
Cassidy expects to see merger and acquisition activity in the sector continue to increase over the next 12 to 18 months.
Since Google has dominated the search side of things, companies are looking to other forms of advertising, such as customized ads on Web sites relevant to their customers, or multimedia ads that
incorporate video, Cassidy said.
But Marblehead, Mass.-based Internet marketer Jim Peake of MySuccessGateway.com said some experimental advertising avenues, such as mobile-based advertising, are still unproven.
“How often does someone respond to a mobile ad on a cell phone?” Peake asked. “I really question how strong a market it is.”
