Bengaluru based InMobi has acquired Sprint Corp’s mobile advertising unit Pinsight Media in a all stock deal. With this deal, Sprint Corp has reportedly got minority stake in the Indian unicorn company.
Sprint, which is a major U.S. wireless carrier, had founded Pinsight Media in 2012 with an aim to help companies in uncovering huge customer base through its targeted mobile ads. The deal comes at a critical time when Sprint Corp is waiting for regulatory approval for its merger with T Mobile.
”With this acquisition we are creating the most powerful advertising and marketing platform for the U.S. market by unifying online and offline behavior, and providing CMOs with a way to reach and engage consumers, while remaining compliant with privacy and data protection requirements,” said Naveen Tewari, Founder & CEO of InMobi.
Tewari further added “This industry-first acquisition allows InMobi and Sprint to work on our respective strengths together, and provides a global template for partnerships between advertising platforms and telcos.”
It is worth noting that InMobi gets 55% of its annual revenue from the U.S. market and the latest acquisition is likely to further help the company in getting deeper footprint in the American market.
The American mobile ad market is considered to be a highly lucrative market. According to market research firm eMarketer, the mobile ad spending in U.S is likely to surpass TV ad spending by more than $6 billion in the current year. The research firm further claims that this gap will increased significantly by 2022.
Meanwhile, Pinsight Media is InMobi’s second acquisition this year. The Bengaluru headquartered company had acquired AerServ in January for nearly $90 Mn.
InMobi was founded in 2007 by Naveen Tewari, Mohit Saxena, Amit Gupta and Abhay Singhal. The company, which is backed by SoftBank, aims to emerge as one of the formidable players in the global mobile ad market.
However, InMobi faces stiff competition from global players like Google and Facebook.
