Akamai's $95M Bet on Better Ad Targeting

Akamai (AKAM) wants to branch out of the content delivery business. Today it announced an all-cash, $95 million acquisition of Acerno, a subsidiary of database marketing firm i-Behavior. Acerno pools purchasing data from online retailers, who then share it among themselves in an aggregate, anonymous way. So if one retailer sees that people who buy pencils also buy sharpeners, when somebody looks at a sharpener on another site it will know to put up an offer for a pencil. This data becomes more valuable as the connections become less obvious.

Akamai will combine Acerno’s purchasing data with its own Web browsing data to offer Websites an even more refined way to target ads. It is blending Acerno into a newly created data business called Advertising Decision Solutions.

Investors, though, may question what a content delivery network is doing getting into the advertising business. The stock is down 2 percent on the news.

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Comments

[MalluFool:]

Instead they should have baught LLNW!

2008 Oct 21 12:24 PM

[Michael Comeau:]

Keep in mind that AKAM has a lot of exposure to web retailers - something like 60 of the top 100 if my memory serves correctly, helping to keep those sites running properly during periods of heavy traffic. AKAM might be using Acerno as a way to increase ARPU by cross-selling.

2008 Oct 21 12:30 PM

[Nom De Plum:]

Hey MalluFool - If you don't know how to spell "bought" you should not be investing your money in anything other than a savings account.

2008 Oct 22 10:23 AM