Mobclix said to be acquired soon

The mobile ad exchange network is said to be in talks with a public company about acquisition

The rumor mill is a-rollin', and word on the street is that Mobclix, a mobile ad exchange network, is being pursued. According to unnamed sources, Mobclix is in advanced discussions to be acquired by a public company, and the deal is being overseen by Allen & Co.

Founded in 2008, the Palo Alto, Calif.-based startup offers an online marketplace where iPhone app developers can auction off their inventory to a number of advertisers, networks, and agencies.  The ad networks are, in turn, able to maximize their ad click-throughs by bidding on specific audience segments based on key targets, like age, gender, behavior, and location, among other factors. 

To fine tune ad targeting, Mobclix partnered with Nielsen back in February of this year to gain access to the company’s vast store of consumer demographic and behavior data.  The terms of the deal allowed Mobclix to resell Nielsen products PRIZM, which compartmentalizes consumers according to demographic and behavior, and ConneXions, which identifies consumers from among 53 different consumer categories, to ad networks and publishers.  This allows ad networks to bid on target audiences within a multi-layered field of data, including ethnicity, education level, tech-savviness, and commonly followed trends.  The partnership extended Nielsen’s reach to 890,000 households.

In March, Mobclix expanded its analytics offerings by acquiring the iPhone app sales analytics company, Heartbeat, which allows developers to monitor sales data, crash reporting, ongoing hourly usage, reviews, and rankings.  Since launching in January 2009, over 3000 applications have used the platform and the company has tracked some 10% of the total iPhone/iPod market. 

As for the rumored acquisition of Mobclix, it is unclear who the mystery buyer could be.  A Mobclix representative said that the company was not ready to comment on the rumored deal, but in August, Blackberry-maker Research in Motion was said to be looking to acquire a mobile ad network of its own and was even in talks with Millennial Media at one point, but shied away from Millennial’s rumored $400 to $500 million asking price.  RIM reportedly wanted to avoid shelling out the same inflated prices that Google and Apple paid for AdMob and Quattro Wireless, respectively.

Millennial did not appear to be heartbroken about RIM’s decision to back out of the deal, as Millennial’s CEO had previously made comments suggesting that the company would not sell but rather pursue an IPO.

Google acquired mobile ad platform AdMob back in November of 2009 for $750 million, and in January 2010, Apple bought Quattro Wireless for $275 million, which was reportedly reduced from $400 million.

Last week an announcement from Microsoft named Mobclix among several mobile ad networks who were partnering with Microsoft to participate in a new ad exchange for Windows Phone 7.

Image source: surfmobee.com