AudienceScience Acquisition Of Wunderloop Strengthens Its Position In The European Data Market

There was a certain amount of surprise and incredulity in the European ad industry when Wunderloop announced its bankruptcy at the end of April. Wunderloop, unlike a lot of ad tech companies, had demonstrable technology. It had also a decent share of the European data market, particularly in France and Germany - and was one of the leading data companies in the European display space. So why did it go bankrupt?

The company said it had no choice due to a lack of interest in a new funding round. It seems difficult to believe given the amount of VC money around at the minute. A lot of investors, it would seem, have passed up a good investment opportunity given the significant growth of the audience-buying market. Maybe some were spooked by Wunderloop's misadventure in the UK which turned sour last year, forcing a retreat by the company. This of course is all pointless retrospective analysis now that Wunderloop has been acquired by AudienceScience.

What are the implications of this acquisition for the European data market? AudienceScience practically owns the UK data market. Its tags are everywhere and it works with all top-tier premium publishers - everyone from the FT to the BBC. Best-in-class data segmentation tech has won it a lot of market share. But it hasn't featured as much in other European markets - due mainly to its focus on the UK. The acquisition of Wunderloop gives it instant access to other lucrative European display markets. Germany is obviously the big prize. The move towards audience buying is gathering momentum there, and pro-active agencies are looking for more innovative solutions to deliver more ROI to clients. AudienceScience will be able to leverage existing Wunderloop relationships, to build bigger market share - and introduce new products to the European market such as its Gateway platform.

AudienceScience could well be the largest data specialist in the European display market - that's if you don't count Google or Yahoo as pure data players. The acquisition has given AS a foothold in some interesting markets and access to technology that is used so differently across Europe. For instance, German agencies and publishers prefer Wunderloop for straight-up audience segmentation and audience buying. In France, the technology is used by ad nets to enhance their own targeting capabilities. The platform has also being white laballed by many big European media companies for internal use. Won't this all-encompassing approach by Wunderloop make life a little more complicated for AudeinceSceinece? Maybe a little tightening on marketing message and product offering might be required. But wholesale changes will not be necessary. AudienceScience resource and investment will be able to strengthen and build on these existing partnerships.

Perhaps the most intriguing part of this deal is what happens to the AdAudience partnership. AdAudience is the joint venture audience exchange run by several of Germany's big publishers. Will the current agreement be affected by this new development? Not likely. The current arrangement will survive. AudienceSceince operate similar publisher partnerships in other markets so we're not likely to see AdAudience seeking a new tech partner anytime soon.

This was a good strategic acquisition by AudienceScience, giving it some decent tech and access to new markets. Given that Wunderloop was bankrupt, this acquisition was the only logical course of action. The newly strengthened AudienceScience is arguably the biggest player in the European data market - and looks set for more growth. How long will it be before the big G comes knocking on its door? I'd say six months at the most.