AOL acquires Third Screen Media to target mobile Ads

Time Warner Inc.'s AOL Internet division has announced that it will acquire mobile advertising company Third Screen Media, as interest in ads on cell phones grow rapidly. However, financial terms and condition of the deal were not disclosed as of now. Third Screen will function as a subsidiary of AOL’s Advertising.com business, which the Internet giant had acquired three years back.

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Third Screen Media links up advertisers, publishers and mobile phone carriers on a common platform. And it permits advertisements to be managed and delivered through wireless application protocol or WAP, downloadable applications, text-messaging or SMS, multimedia messaging service or MMS and mobile video.

AOL’s decision of the take over highlights the increasing importance US advertisers are placing on mobile. Wireless advertising in the US is projected to grow from $221 million last year to $4.7 million in 2011, according to eMarketer and the global market is expected to reach $11.3 billion in the next five years.

Lynda Clarizio, president of Advertising.com, has said in a statement, ‘From display advertising to video advertising to mobile advertising, this acquisition firmly positions Advertising.com as the one-stop shop for online advertisers and publishers’. More than 100 mobile Web publishers and leading wireless carriers partake in the Third Screen Media network.

This time around, at least half-dozen US startups have joined the mobile advertising playing field in the past two years and the list includes Millennial Media Inc. and AdMob Inc. Following the trend, analysts anticipate more consolidation in the space as mainstream ad agencies and brands incorporate wireless into their overall advertising strategies.

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