Singtel Goes On Mini Ad Tech Buying Spree; Acquires Adconion and Kontera For $359m

Amobee, a subsidiary of Singtel, announced this morning it was acquiring Adconion and Kontera for $150m and $225m respectively.

The Adconion deal is understood to be the North American and APAC businesses only. The European part of Adconion will not be included, and is likely to be spun out as a new company.

This is now the fourth big ticket ad tech purchase that Singtel has made, having spent close to a billion dollars on ad tech companies over the past twenty four months.

The logic behind the purchase is not clear. Kontera is an in-text and in-image ad network. You could argue that Amobee could bring this capability to their mobile stack play (Amobee, GradientX).

The Adconion purchase is a little less clear. As the market shifted to programmatic Adconion in Europe at least has struggled to offer any differentiation to the trading desks - and has been knocked off a lot of plans.

By all accounts. Adconion's business was strongest in Australia and the US - and it could be Singtel wanted to grab market share in these regions.

Singtel is reported to have another $1bn to spend on digital advertising, and having bulked up in display and mobile, it does seem a little light on the video side. Don't be surprised if you see a purchase or investment in that area over the coming months.

In terms of exits, Kontera seems to have done pretty well here, having raised $35m and flipped to Amobee for $150m.

The Adconion acquisition doesn't seem as clear cut. The company raised $114m and was sold for $235m. The deal is complicated by the US and Australia asset purchase only. Where this leaves the European business and who actually made money out of the deal is anyone's guess.

You can see Amobee's Krishan Patel speak at ATS Singapore on July 07. Get your ticket today to get inside track on the programmatic market in the region.