Velti Buys Ad Infuse

Mobile marketing firm Velti has acquired Ad Infuse, which specialises in personalised mobile advertising. Velti says the acquisition will enable the company to strengthen its position in the US market and sustain its growth over the coming years. Velti will immediately integrate Ad Infuses management team, award-winning technology and prestigious customer base into its global operations. Ad Infuse CEO Brian Cowley will assume the position of General Manager of Velti North America.

Ad Infuses mobile ad serving and routing technology platforms enable advertisers, publishers, brands, and operators to place mobile ads on multiple networks and manage them in real-time. Ad Infuse works with leading advertisers, publishers, and operators in the US and Europe.

The integrated company will comprise over 400 people across its operations in the US, Europe, China, India and Middle East. Velti says it is already the worlds largest mobile advertising and marketing company, with operations in 35 countries, and some of the worlds leading advertising and media agencies, brands, operators and publishers as its customers, including Microsoft, Disney, Unilever, Orange and MasterCard.

“The acquisition of Ad Infuse will broaden our US team and enhance our global product offering,” says Velti CEO, Alex Moukas. “Mobile advertising and marketing continues to enjoy significant growth, even in todays environment: the marketing landscape is changing and mobile is the catalyst for this. This transaction provides us with a proven management team,a strong client base, and proven technology that will help us further accelerate our global growth.”

The integration of Ad Infuses personalisation and ad routing/serving technology within Veltis Mobile Marketing Platform (MMP) will provide ad agencies with an end-to-end solution for mobile media planning, campaign management, optimisation, execution, analytics and hosting of mobile advertising and marketing campaigns. Velti says this new offering addresses a key problem that advertising agencies currently face of having to communicate with multiple suppliers to run an integrated campaign. Additionally, Veltis enhanced platform will provide a single point for media planning across quality mobile inventory providers; tracking across any media channel that converts to mobile (including TV, print and outdoor); post-response interactivity, with over 90 proven scenarios; and creative media utilisation, including rich content, such as mobile Internet sites, applications, games and video.

Velti recently announced 2008 revenues of $70 million (£47 million), with an EBITDA of $17 million. It says that revenues in the first quarter of 2009 are expected to be more than 50% higher than Q1 2008.