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Google Buying Mobile Ad Network AdMob for $750MM

Google agreed to acquired AdMob for $750MM in an all stock deal yesterday.

Google's purchases are always interesting since they have enough cash buy just about any company and usually make good decisions.  This one is especially interesting for a number of reasons:

1. AdMob is a mobile display ad network - meaning they serve ads on mobile devices like your iPhone or Blackberry device - that was only launched in 2006 (nice payback for the investors and employees in short order)

2. Google is betting on the future of mobile and with this purchase will now have 30-40% market share in the mobile ad business 

3.  Without deep knowledge of AdMob's revenue I've got to believe they are paying north of 30X revenue which is quite a premium 

4. Google will now have a strong play (if not the strongest play) in search, display (thanks to acquisition of DoubleClick), and mobile.  King of the mountain status for sure.

It wouldn't surprise me to see other mobile companies get snatched up by the likes of Yahoo and Microsoft in order to keep pace with Google.

   

Mobile Phones - Most Love 'em, Some Leave 'em

Couple of interesting studies and stories came out this morning on mobile phone usage.

First...Synovate's global mobile phone survey delivered some great stats:

- 82% of Americans never leave home without their mobile phone

- 36% of global population say they "cannot live without" their mobile phone (I see a reality TV show in the making)

- 68% of Americans use the camera function on their mobile phone 

There are also some amusing stats about how often people use texting on their mobile phones to break up (12%) and lie about their whereabouts/why they are running late (31%).  With advances in GPS and technology within mobile phones it will be harder to do the later.

Second...on the flip side there was an article in the NYT today entitled "The Cell Refuseniks" about that small subset of the population who don't have a cell (mobile) phone.  They prefer not to be bothered 24/7 and look at not being attached to a phone as a "luxury."  They also hate the annoying ring tones, very loud talkers (I can relate to both on Metro North Trains), and constant interruptions when they are having real face-to-face conversations.   The only time I enjoy that "luxury" is when I am on vacation out of the country as I haven't stepped up to a "world" phone yet.

Going Mobile With Your Advertising

When Pete Townsend wrote the lyrics to The Who's hit song Going Mobile in 1971 he was referring to the fun and freedom he had driving around in a car.  Today any mention of the word Mobile has to do with cellular phones, smart phones, pda's, and any other devices one can take along to access data online and sometimes make phone calls. According to eMarketer mobile advertising spending will continue to grow in the 30-42% range for the next few years and finally cracking the $1 Billion mark in 2012.  Companies like AdMob, Millennial, and Jumptap - along with the hundreds of other lesser known players vying for those ad dollars - have a real opportunity at achieving success and profitability if they can easily define their value proposition to marketers, differentiate themselves from their competitors, and move quickly.