Telenor Picks Up Cross-device Ad Tech Firm Tapad

Sigve Brekke, CEO of Telenor Group
Sigve Brekke, CEO of Telenor Group

Telenor, one of the worlds largest mobile operators, has acquired ad tech firm Tapad, looking to strengthen its marketing capabilities and, in particular, its cross-device retargeting offering, which Tapad specialises in.

The acquisition, which saw Telenor pick up 95 per cent of the company for $360m (£252m), will see the operator largely deploying Tapads technology across its own footprint, which covers Scandinavia, eastern Europe and emerging markets in Asia including Vietnam and Burma, which have seen huge growth in the past few years.

Tapad was founded by two Norwegians in 2010, and tracks billions of data points across multiple screens to generate profiles on consumers, which it then packages and sells to media buyers, brands and other advertisers to enable better targeting. While Tapads valuation before the acquisition isnt clear, the startup had only raised $34m in four round of funding, so the price Telenor paid for the company represents a huge premium on its investment up to that point.

“With the acquisition of Tapad, Telenor Group is taking a position within the rapidly growing market for advertising technology, and securing important competence within digital marketing and analytics,” said Sigve Brekke, CEO of Telenor Group. “I believe significant value can be created from applying marketing technology to improve the digital capabilities of our core telecom business. This will improve our understanding of customer behaviour, and supports building a platform for other business areas.”

Tapad currently boasts more than 160 of the top US brands among its customer, and has over 50 data technology licensing partnerships in place. Its expected to report revenues of around $57m for 2015, up 70 per cent on its previous year, and Telenor has stated it expects revenues to increase to around $90m this year, and for the firm to break-even in 2017.

“We are thrilled to join the Telenor family,” said Are Traasdahl, CEO and co-found of Tapad. “With more than 200m mobile subscribers in 13 markets, Telenor is one of the largest and most successful telecom companies globally. I am excited by what this acquisition means for our employees, our partners and our continued growth. This will accelerate our vision to become the worlds leading provider of unified digital marketing solutions.”