AOL Wraps Up Quigo Deal, Boosts Online Ad Offerings
By : Nidhi Gupta
Internet giant AOL has completed its acquisition of online advertising firm Quigo. Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
AOL announced it was acquiring New York-based Quigo on November 7 to expand its contextual advertising prowess, which basically matches text adverts to relevant Web pages. Quigo’s two main offerings are: AdSonar, which allows advertisers to buy ads on Websites based on specific pages, sections, topics or keywords; and FeedPoint, a search engine marketing business that helps retail advertisers manage their marketing relationships with search and comparison shopping engines.
AOL said it will use Quigo’s technology for its own Web pages as well as third-parties. Founded in 2000 and employing over 100 staff Quigo will now become a wholly-owned subsidiary of AOL’s Platform-A division, which was set up in September to consolidate and manage network sales operations for AOL’s contextual and behavioral technology and service offerings to brand advertisers.
AOL, which is a majority owned subsidiary of Time Warner, also inherits over 500 Quigo online publishing partners, including a recently cemented deal with Time that boasts a network of around 3,000 advertisers.
Source: Computerwire.com
Quigo is the fourth advertising company that AOL has bought this year. Other purchases include Third Screen Media (mobile advertising), Adtech (as serving platform) and Tacoda (behavioral targeting). All are now part of AOL’s Platform-A division.
AOL wrapped up the deal on the same day that the US Federal Trade Commission gave the go-ahead for rival Google’s $1.3bn acquisition of Internet advertising company DoubleClick. At the same time the FTC also proposed a set of behavioral marketing principles for online advertising that aim “to guide the development of self-regulation in this evolving area.” The FTC is asking for public comment on its proposal. Behavioral advertising tracks an online user’s activities, like Web searches and Websites visited, to target them with relevant adverts based on their interests.
