M&A Alert - June 3, 2010
Google Acquires Invite Media
Transaction Overview
On June 2, 2010 Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) acquired display advertising exchange Invite Media for a reported price of $70 million.
Target Description
Invite Media provides an full view of, and real-time bidding for, advertising inventory available across all major online display ad exchanges such as Google’s DoubleClick Ad Exchange, Yahoo!’s Right Media Exchange, Microsoft’s AdECN and OpenX, among others. Ad exchanges arose to provide a full view of inventory available on specific ad networks. Invite Media takes this one level higher, by bringing a single view of ad exchanges. Fundamentally the idea is to allow advertisers (and ad agencies working on behalf of advertising clients) to efficiently view and select, via a single user interface, where to run their online advertising campaigns. Invite Media competitors include startups such as MediaMath, X+1 and Turn. The Company was founded in 2007 out of the University of Pennsylvania by Nat Turner, Zachary Weinberg, Scott Becker and Michael Provenzano. We estimate Invite Media has approximately 30 – 40 employees currently. The Company received funding from First Round Capital, Genacast Ventures, Creative Commerce, and Comcast Interactive Capital. The total amount of funding was not disclosed.
Buyer Description
Google is an advertising giant which offers a range of services to advertisers. Google entered the ad exchange business with their acquisition of DoubleClick for $3.1 billion. Correction: Google launched their ad exchange through DoubleClick on September 18, 2009.
Transaction Parameters
Google reportedly acquired Invite Media for $70 million.
| Enterprise Value 1 | $70 million |
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1. AllThingsD June 2 2010
Strategic Rationale
Google is continuing to bolster its display advertising capabilities via the acquisition of Invite Media. The so called “demand side platform” area has seen considerable attention recently with Google mentioning in its blog today “many agencies and advertisers have been asking us to make a bidding platform available directly to them, as they want to take advantage of the opportunities that real time bidding presents.”
Architect Partners’ Observations
Google has been looking at demand-side platforms for some time now. Competitors will be required to match capabilities.