We’re hearing that Apple is buying mobile advertising company Quattro Wireless for $275 million. This jives with reports earlier this evening of a deal between the two companies. Our source says that there was initially talk of a $400 million pricetag, but that has since come down. We’ve also heard that Microsoft may have been very interested as well.
The news comes only two months after Quattro competitor AdMob was snatched away from an Apple acquisition at the eleventh hour by Google.
The move is at once unsurprising and strange for Apple. Unsurprising, because Apple has ventured into this territory before with its negotiations with AdMob and has made it clear that it wants a cut of the soon-to-explode mobile advertising sector. At the same time, this is wholly unfamiliar territory for Apple. The company has long focused on selling high quality devices and the polished software that accompanies it. Yes, it distributes a vast amount of media through iTunes, but it is almost never involved with actually creating this media. Nor does it typically have a sales force selling advertising.
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