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.
Google X Apple now???
So while Google is owning mobile advertisement using admob now: Will Admob be The New Adsense for Mobile? http://bit.ly/admob-the-new-adsense-for-mobile
Apple plans another ambitious move to strengthen their advertising power on mobile. Perhaps Apple has finally sense the monopoly game being played by BIG G?
Probably the greatest story in tech right now is watching Apple and Google go head to head. They are both innovative companies trying to gain ground on each other. It will push the industry forward. Is Microsoft still in the game?
I think the biggest story right now is the Nokia vs. Apple Lawsuit.
And Techcrunch wont cover that LOL as they love Apple more than Nokia
Good to watch competition between Google and Apple
Agreed. This heightened competition should also help Google’s acquisition of AdMob with any antitrust concerns.
Dumb dumb deal for Apple. Media Sales? I dont think so – that’s all they bought. No technology at Q other than some juicing WAP creating stuff. BUT, congrats to Lars Ishwar and Andy. Well done.
Wow, good news to come – i am hearing sparks of an apple search engine.
That would be the most stupid thing Apple could do.
(Just to be clear I’m not insinuating you are stupid)
Will be interesting to see who’s next?
1. Mobclix
2. Millennial Media
3. VideoEgg
thoughts?
Probably Mobclix for a platform play or Millennial for an ad network – depends on the acquirer’s strategy
i don’t think anybody will want to touch ads for iphone with a 10-foot pole now that apple themselves are jumping into this game.
Ad platforms shouldn’t be building exclusively for iPhone apps to begin with. With that said, all mobile ad platforms should continue to have an option for apps developers.
Regardless, I think there might be better ad solutions out there. Mobile advertising is going to have to be highly targeted, and probably incentive based for the consumer. For example, if I’m sitting in a Taco Bell browsing the mobile web, and see an ad for “buy 2 tacos and get 1 free with this coupon,” I’m MUCH more likely to act upon it… and you still get a good measurement of conversion.
Looks like Scott and the iPhone team really have no clue what they are doing at Apple. Looks like he just bought themselves a useless ad network that makes no sense.
I am willing to bet that with an advertising under the umbrella of Apple we will see a similar implementation of AdSense and Blogger.
Especially considering that there are more and more how-to’s for creating apps; Joe Six-Pack may eventually want to create an application and try to make money with a convenient 1-2-3 approach of an Apple supplied network.
@deleo hits it dead on: Apple/Google is the match to watch these days.
But this also creates an interesting scenario for Apple, with a “Donut Hole” now around…their carrier, AT&T. They have the device [iPhone], and the Ad dist platform [Quattro], and at least some of the Content [Apps]. All that’s left is that one…pesky…piece, clogging the path.
IMHO a move from Microsoft/ Yahoo, Nokia or WPP is very likely. What’s very interesting to me is that most of these recent acquisitions focus on companies that are very heavily focused on the west while bulk of the mobile population of the world and therefore their target audience is based in the developing countries. So while this my be well and good in the near term the smart money should be chasing the ad networks which have significant scale in emerging economies like InMobi and Buzz City (less so).
Inmobi? You are joking right? That is a small network in India that has zero traction and all porn. No smart money would touch that with a ten-foot pole.
Not from what I hear. Not sure if you caught the last TC piece about them. I was shocked/ impressed by their numbers. They are at about 7.5B impressions a month and profitable. Not many ad networks can stake a claim to that kind of scale or profitability. You have to keep in mind that their cost base is likely a lot lower than all other networks that based in the US or Europe. Also some of the smartest money in the market is already backing them up (early investors of Google and Kleiner Perkins).
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/12/02/mobile-ad-network-inmobi-turns-profitable-eyes-expansion-in-u-s/
I’d say the mobile ad market is still not at its prime time yet although it really started to be promising. To see the large revenue size (billions of dollars) we must first see the large search traffic volume (compared to web traffic in late 1990s). Yet I am curious why suddenly there comes the spree of buying mobile ad platform start-ups?
I think Apple (with the iSlate?) will try to establish something like a Media Store (similar to iTunes and App Store), free and paid content from Newspapers and Magazines… a domain where embedding ads next to content has a long tradition and is accepted by users (readers). That’s what they need an ad company for.
I wonder if Apple is just going down a rabbit hole here to compete with Google and will this all lead to hyper-competition in the mobile ad space before it is justified? Also, having worked with both Ad Mob and Quattro, Ad Mob was clearly a better match for Apple given their leadership in iPhone inventory.
Anyway if nothing else these purchases will make for a few more exciting headlines to start the decade, because even with billions of dollars of cash on hand and resident geniuses on staff, tech companies are notorious for jumping into spaces for which they are not well-suited. For examples just look at the Ebay/Skype or the AOL/Time Warner fiascos. Even so, Apple’s recent purchases are chomp change when compared to what Ebay and AOL paid for their boondoggles.
Their reporting was always wacky. Website looked somewhat slick but didn’t really work (HTTPS errors, bad links, etc). No where close to AdMob. Ads were lackluster as well.
Apple was definitely caught with their pants down and needed something, Quattro was lucky Google bought AdMob.
It’s official. The internet is now serious business for Apple.
Apple buying Quattro is a great indicator for the future success of the mobile space. It’s clear Apple wanted in on the money being made in the ad-supported app space and Quattro fills some of the gaps in Apple’s offering.
It will be an interesting to see the benefits and challenges Quattro will face as part of this acquisition. They will certainly be able to use the relationship to bring in advertisers excited about the red hot iPhone platform but could face issues when advertisers looking for cross platform mobile options shy away from what looks like a monogamous relationship with Apple. Either way, we wish them all the best and look forward to how they will evolve as one of the ad networks in our exchange.
-Krishna Subramanian, Mobclix Co-Founder
Mobclix rocks! Ads & analytics all at one place.
Wouldn’t like such good service to be limited to iPhone only. Mobclix embracing all the platforms is always good for developers.
“…this is wholly unfamiliar territory for Apple.”
As was the MP3 player and the phone market, so what.
They did it with mQube and now with Quattro. Good going guys! Hats off to you.
Apple buying Quattro is a little strange to me. I’d have thought that GreyStripe would have made more sense.
Nevertheless, I’m very pleased for the Quattro team.
Patrick Collins (CEO and co-founder, 5th Finger)
This now puts apple in the game with Google and RIM in terms of providing mobile advertising services to their developers. This what I mean:
http://qandil.ca/techblog/2010/01/06/apple-acquires-quattro-wireless/