Integral Ad Science buys contextual ad firm ADmantX for €16m


Digital ad verification firm Integral Ad Science (IAS) has acquired ADmantX, a contextual targeting company, from Expert System  for €16m (£13.7m) The deal will bring together the latter’s contextual intelligence solutions with IAS’s suite of ad verification products. 

By bringing in ADmantX, IAS will look to enable publishers and advertisers to match ads with relevant online content at page level. The acquisition also gives IAS more deep relationships with brands and publishers and access to patented technology, as well as the expertise behind it.

“ADmantX shares our bold and disruptive vision to use science as the foundation of building innovative and effective solutions,” said IAS CEO Lisa Utzschneider. “Adding this sophisticated contextual technology to our global product suite unlocks unprecedented contextual classification at scale, enabling precise ad targeting for marketers.”

ADmantX, based in Italy, uses natural language processing technology and machine learning to read content and detect changes in context surrounding certain words, therefore making ads more contextually relevant within these environments. It combines this with an examination of the interests of consumers based on the media they’re consuming online.   

The pair already had an agreement in place that meant IAS was offering ADmantX’s services. Now, it will take on all of the company’s staff and fully absorb it, getting rid of the ADmantX name.

“The ADmantX team is thrilled to be joining IAS, an organisation that leads through data and science. The addition of our leading cognitive and linguistic intelligence technology to IAS will supply the industry with powerful and precise tools to drive ad adjacencies and increase customer engagement without limiting scale and optimize publisher content inventories,” said ADmantX CEO Giovanni Strocchi.