Time, Inc. has acquired Waltham MA based Adelphic, a leading mobile DSP. Terms weren’t disclosed (typically code for the VC firms got their money back, some employees will get to keep their jobs but no one is buying a private jet)
According to the Wall Street Journal, Time Inc. said it has agreed to acquire Adelphic Inc., an automated advertising buying platform. The move is intended to offer marketers the ability to directly buy advertising that targets specific consumers.
Time Inc. said the ad tech firm will complement Viant, a data-driven marketing company it acquired last year that has a database of more than 1 billion registered users. Adelphic enables agencies and clients to buy advertising on their own, a self-service capability that Viant currently lacks.
Michael Collins, chief executive of Adelphic, based in Waltham, Mass., said the combination of Viant’s audience data with Adelphic’s automated buying should provide greater value to clients. “Their data and premium content together with our automated buying technology will be a very powerful combination,” he said.
According to AdExchanger: "Is Time Inc. trying to take on Google and Facebook? The publisher announced Monday that it’s acquiring cross-device and mobile ad platform Adelphic to build what it's calling a "people-based DSP." The Adelphic deal, slated to close during Q1, comes just shy of a year after Time Inc. bought Viant for its people-based marketing capabilities in February. The move will help advertisers “looking for more efficient buying processes for digital audiences,” said Time Inc. President and CEO Rich Battista in a statement."
Adelphic’s self-serve capabilities and the platform’s mobile focus were particularly appealing, said Viant COO and co-founder Chris Vanderhook. Viant, which offers a primarily managed service, looked at 40 companies in the DSP space before settling on Adelphic.
“The biggest thing we were looking for was how good their platform is and if they have self-service technology,” Vanderhook said. “Programmatic is a very important thing, yes, but clients, specifically agencies, want transparency and control and good self-service technology.”
