Mobile advertising network company InMobi, which recently received an investment of $200 million (Rs 949.30 crore) from Softbank Corp, the biggest for an internet company in Asia, plans to invest a part of the money in acquisitions.

Speaking to Business Line , Mr Naveen Tewari, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, said, “Apart from acquisitions, we also plan to use it for hiring engineers and to build a better presence in various countries.” The company currently operates out of 165 countries.

Exciting Opportunity

Mobile advertising is becoming a hot field thanks to the growth of smart phones and tablets. To cater to this segment, InMobi acquired Sprout in August 2011. At that time, Mr Atul Satija, Vice President and Managing Director, Asia Pacific, InMobi, said that, by using Sprout, companies could create an ad for free within an hour instead of spending anywhere between $10,000 to $15,000 and three to four weeks for the same purpose.

Though the segment is still small — research firm Berg Insight said that this field was worth just €1,014 million ($1,398 million) in 2008 — it is growing at a CAGR of 43 per cent and is expected to touch € 8,700 million ($11,999 million) in 2014 and will account for 11.7 per cent of the total digital advertising market.

Apart from investments, this sector has also witnessed a lot of acquisitions in the recent past. In 2007, Microsoft acquired ScreenTonic for an undisclosed sum, while in 2009 Google paid $750 million for AdMob. This was followed by Apple's acquisition of Quattro Wireless for $275 million in 2010 and Facebook's acquisition in 2011 of Rel8tion for an undisclosed sum.

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