Austin-based mobile apps and ads platform company Digital Turbine said this week that it has scooped up Arlington, Va.-based mobile ad platform Mobile Posse for about $66 million.
The deal could provide a substantial revenue boost for Digital Turbine. In 2019, Mobile Posse is said to have had $55 million-plus in revenue.
Mobile Posse, founded in 2005, has raised $16.5 million in funding, Crunchbase shows. That includes a $1.5 million Series A in 2007; a $10 million Series B in 2007 led by Columbia Capital, Court Square Ventures and Softbank Capital; and a $5 million round in 2012 led by Harbert Growth Partners.
Under terms of the deal, Digital Turbine will pay $41.5 million in cash and debt for Mobile Posse at closing. About $24.5 million will be paid in cash based on hitting target revenues and other milestones.
"... the strategic rationale for the acquisition is very strong," Mobile Posse CEO Jon Jackson said in a statement. "We believe that Mobile Posse's content discovery platform and Digital Turbine's distribution and relationships combine to create a powerful and highly-differentiated industry solution."
That adds to a growing business lineup for Austin's Digital Turbine, which also has offices in Durham, N.C., Tel Aviv, San Francisco and Singapore. The company reported $36 million in third quarter revenue, which was an all-time high for the company, which was founded in 1998. The new quarterly revenue number was 18 percent above revenue from the same timeframe last year.
The company, led by CEO Bill Stone, has seen its Ignite software used in more than 365 million devices and recently signed a partnership deal with LG Electronics.
"With a similar-minded focus on promoting higher user engagement and boosting advertising revenue for mobile operators and OEMs, Mobile Posse's content discovery platform is a perfect complement to our own existing platform offering," Stone said in a news release.
Digital Turbine has worked through at least four other acquisitions and mergers. The biggest came when the company merged with Appia in a $100 million stock and debt deal in 2015. Crunchbase shows it also acquired Logia Group in 2012 for $5.5 million and scooped up Volas Entertainment for an undisclosed price in 2012 and Xyo in 2014, also for an undisclosed price.
About a year ago, Bridge Bank in California said it upsized Digital Turbine's credit line to $20 million.
