Yahoo Targets Mobile Advertising Market with Flurry Purchase

Yahoo is purchasing mobile app analytics firm Flurry, a company that collects data from some 540,000 apps to help marketers identify which mobile ads work the best for Android and iPhone users. While financial specifics have not been released, insiders suggest the deal is valued at more than $200 million, one of the largest under CEO Marissa Mayer. The acquisition is another step by Mayer to pursue mobile advertising revenue, a market largely dominated by Google and Facebook.

yahoo2“Mobile represents one of Ms. Mayer’s best opportunities to increase ad revenue and deliver on her promises to serve super-targeted ads alongside the company’s growing array of digital content,” reports The Wall Street Journal. “Some advertisers’ perception of Yahoo as an aging relic of an earlier Web era may not carry over to smartphones, where most companies are still experimenting with new approaches to marketing.”

WSJ notes that Flurry currently works with about 8,000 mobile publishers that use the analytics to sell banner ads within apps. These relationships should help Yahoo with pitching advertisers.

“What they bring to Yahoo is a great set of partnerships,” said Scott Burke, Yahoo’s SVP of advertising. “Now we can work with all of those apps and bring them access to Yahoo services.”

Mobile advertising is a $32.7 billion market today. According to eMarketer, the market is expected to grow nearly 85 percent this year.

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