Twitter has acquired mobile advertising exchange start up MoPub for $350m, which will add real-time bidding feature to company’s ad platform.
Apart from enhancing its relationship with conventional media firms, the deal will also support Twitter’s ad sales platform and e-commerce services.
With annual revenues of more than $100m, MoPub is a hosted ad serving solution built specifically for mobile publishers.
Twitter vice president for revenue products Kevin Weil was quoted by the Financial Times as saying: "Mobile is obviously key to Twitter as a whole and to our advertising platform. Allowing advertisers to buy ads in real time, at the instant they are delivered to the app user, improves targeting and relevance for both brands and users."
Following the acquisition, about 100 employees of MoPub will join Twitter, while MoPub CEO Jim Payne will become vice president and will report to Twitter’s revenue head Adam Bain.
Jim Payne, CEO of MoPub in a statement, said: "Like MoPub, Twitter has been ‘mobile first’ since their inception, which makes our two companies a natural match.
Payne added: "In addition to investing in new capabilities for our publisher platform, we believe there are opportunities to bring better native advertising to the mobile ecosystem. With the support of the team and resources of Twitter, we’ll be able to move even more quickly towards the realisation of our original vision."
According to estimates Twitter’s advertising revenues are expected to reach $1bn in 2014.
