Google To Acquire Display Ad Customizer Teracent
The move is Google's latest of several acquisitions in the display advertising space. Earlier this month the online search company said it would acquire AdMob, a mobile advertising display company, for $750 million. Last year it bought online advertising giant DoubleClick for $3.1 billion.
Google did not disclose how much it is paying for San Mateo, Calif.-based Teracent. It said it expected to complete the deal sometime this quarter.
Teracent was founded in 2006 by Vikas Jha, a former engineer at Inktomi. The company develops software that uses machine-learning algorithms to choose and customize online ads from thousands of different creative elements, automatically and in real time, according to a posting on Google's blog this morning by Neal Mohan, vice president of product management, and engineering director Joerg Heilig. An advertisement can be customized for a viewer based on his geographic location, language and the content of the Web site, for example.
Google said it plans to make the Teracent technology available to its display advertising clients, including those that run ad campaigns on the Google Content Network, and DoubleClick clients.
Two weeks ago Google acquired Gizmo5, a developer of VoIP software, for a reported $30 million in what was seen as a move to boost its Google Voice offerings. In October Google executives, citing the improving economy, said they intended to resume making acquisitions.