AppNexus has announced the buyout of French company Alenty in order boost its ad viewability credentials.

Alenty says that more than half of display ad impressions do not meet the IAB and Media Rating Council guidelines, which define a viewed ad as one where at least 50 per cent of the unit is in view for a minimum of one second.

Having worked in partnership with AppNexus since 2011, Alentys technology will now be fully incorporated into the companys programmatic trading platform. This will enable both publishers and advertisers to understand if and for how long an ad has been seen. Alenty co-founder and CEO Laurent Nicolas said this would be a “huge step forward for the industry as we collectively seek to improve the quality of Internet advertising.

AppNexus CEO Brian OKelley has used the companys annual conference to highlight its efforts towards becoming a “mobile company”, including a deepening relationship with Millennial Media and a partnership with Shazam.

Mobile ad spend with AppNexus has grown by 500 per cent over the past year and the company is currently running 65,000 campaigns here.