Limelight Acquires Digital Media Ad Insertion Firm Kiptronic, For About $12 Million
This story was written by Rafat Ali.
Limelight (NSDQ: LLNW), the content delivery network, has acquired multi-platform video ad insertion firm Kiptronic for an undisclosed sum. The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but it was a combination of stock and cash. Updated: Dan Rayburn reports the deal size was small, about $12 million in total. Kiptronic itself was a small company, with around 15 developers.
This acquisition means that Limelight, like competitor Akamai (NSDQ: AKAM), is moving upstream, and adding services on top of video content deliverywith this acquisition, it gets a way to monetize the content it helps deliver on behalf of its clients. Akamai bought online ad targeting firm Acerno last year, for $95 million, though that was more about advertising analytics.
Limelight has also been moving into mobile video, developing some specialty in delivery video ads to the iPhone platform, as detailed here in SAI. Kiptronic has recently started working with NBC on inserting ads into its mobile videos, where its system was integrated into NBC.com's existing web-based ad infrastructure, letting the advertisers buy, track and traffic ads and control placement using the same system they use for the general website. The San Francisco -based company had raised at least $7 million in funding from the likes of Blueprint Ventures and Prism VentureWorks. More details in release.
By Rafat Ali