A year after winning the "Globes" Most Promising Start-Up award, mobile marketing company Amobee Media Systems Inc. has been selected as a World Economic Forum's (WEF) Technology Pioneer 2010. The WEF cited Amobee's accomplishments "as an innovator of the highest caliber, and whose mobile advertising technologies and business model will have a deep impact on business and society".
Amobee was one of several firms selected, including Twitter. Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG), Infosys Technologies Ltd. (Nasdaq: INFY), and Mozilla Corporation are past winners.
Herzliya-based Amobee has developed a platform for managing personalized marketing campaigns on all mobile mediums: SMS, MMS, video clips, mobile Internet, and games.
Last month, Google acquired US mobile advertising platform developer AdMob Inc. for $750 million in order to boost Google's mobile services.
"Globes": How has AdMob's acquisition affected Amobee?
Amobee CEO Zohar Levkovitz: "Google's decision to acquire AdMob affects us at several levels. First, it's a declaration that there's a real and growing market. This acquisition gives us and other companies in the field a high price tag. Another aspect is the fact that Google is working against mobile operators, forcing them to move faster. Amobee works with mobile operators, so this strengthens us.
Assuming that Comverse Technology Inc. (Pink Sheets: CMVT) or Amdocs Ltd. (NYSE: DOX), for example, decides to acquire Amobee, what price tag can be derived from the AdMob acquisition?
"It's very hard to say, but it will be high."
Amobee's investors include Accel Partners and Sequoia Capital, and strategic investors Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT), Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO), Vodafone plc (NYSE; LSE: VOD) and Telefonica SA (NYSE; IBEX:TEF; LSE:TDE).
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on December 6, 2009
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2009