Twitter Buys MoPub for $350m

Twitter has acquired mobile ad exchange MoPub for a reported $350m (£223m).

“The two major trends in the ad world right now are the rapid consumer shift toward mobile usage, and the industry shift to programmatic buying,” said Kevin Weil, vice president of revenue product at Twitter. “Twitter sits at the intersection of these, and we think by bringing MoPub’s technology and team to Twitter, we can further drive these trends for the benefit of consumers, advertisers, and agencies.”

Twitter intends to use MoPubs technology to introduce RTB (Real Time Bidding) into its ad platform “so advertisers can more easily automate and scale their buys”, and to grow its native advertising offering on mobile.

Twitter has committed to investing in MoPub going forward, with an eye on improving its core business.

MoPub, founded in 2010, announced earlier this year that the run rate of its ad exchange had exceeded $100m, with nearly 2bn ads served daily – 20 per cent of which were transacted through RTB.