Opera Acquires Two Mobile Advertising Firms

Opera Software has acquired two mobile advertising companies as the Norwegian browser maker seeks more ways to deliver ads to mobile devices.

Opera acquired both Mobile Theory and 4th Screen Advertising, which it said would enable the company to more effectively monetise the traffic that flows through Opera Mini and Opera Mobile browsers.

Opera Ecosystem

Opera offers advertising solutions for mass-market feature phone and smartphone platforms, including iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Java and Symbian. And Opera’s mobile browsers serve more than 160 million monthly active users that generate more than 100 billion page views, and consume more than 16 petabytes of mobile data services a month, as of December 2011.

“This is yet another important step in Opera’s quest to create even more economic value in the mobile ecosystem,” said Lars Boilesen, CEO of Opera, in a statement. “Two years ago, we announced the acquisition of AdMarvel – which has grown to become the global leader as a supply-side platform (publisher platform) for mobile advertising. Last year, Opera helped generate well over $200 million (£127m) in revenue for our publishers globally.”

“Today, we are announcing the acquisition of two great demand-side platforms for mobile advertising,” Boilesen said. “With these assets, and our very popular mobile browsers, Opera is uniquely positioned to deliver end-to-end mobile advertising solutions to brands, agencies, publishers and mobile operators across the globe. We are delighted to welcome the Mobile Theory and 4th Screen team to the Opera family.”

Opera officials said Mobile Theory is a premium mobile advertising network focused on the US mobile advertising market, based in San Francisco, with offices in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles and Seattle. Opera also said 4th Screen Advertising is a premium mobile advertising network focused on serving the European mobile advertising markets, based in London.

Acquisition Targets

Through an exclusive network of premium-quality mobile sites and apps, Mobile Theory enables the world’s top agencies and brands, such as Microsoft, Chevrolet, AstraZeneca, Coca-Cola and Capital One, to deliver rich media advertising campaigns that engage and immerse the mobile consumer, Opera said in a press release.

Reaching more than 60 million mobile users on over 300 mobile sites and apps, Mobile Theory serves up 2 billion impressions per month.

Meanwhile, 4th Screen Advertising offers brands and advertisers engagement- and rich media-based mobile campaigns. Publisher clients include The Guardian, MTV, Global Radio, Shazam and IMDb.