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Jan. 6, 2010

Late yesterday, Apple said it is in the process of acquiring Quattro Wireless for $275 million. Quattro Wireless is a mobile advertising company that helps advertisers and publishers to reach their target audiences across the mobile Internet segment.

Employing its patented "Q Elevation" dynamic targeting technology to optimize impressions, ad serving, tracking and analytics platform, Quattro helps advertisers deliver improved results.

Neither Apple nor Quattro commented on the exact price of the purchase, but Quattro did confirm the sale of the company on its corporate blog.

Andy Miller, CEO of Quattro says “we have built our business by enabling advertisers to reach the right mobile uers across the wireless Web and in mobile apps. We remain sharply focused on delivering more engaging, relevant and useful ads to mobile devices, and in improving the measurement and execution of digital campaigns. Together with Apple, we look forward to developing exciting new opportunities in the future that will benefit our customers.”

Started a little over 3 1/2 years ago, Quattro Wireless powers mobile advertising network matches, brand advertisers and direct marketers with consumers on the mobile Web. Advertising clients include Kraft, Papa Johns, Ford Motor and Microsoft.

Apple's new acquisition comes on the heels of Google's purchase of Quattro competitor AdMob for a reported $750 million in December, further signs that the mobile marketing space is set to explode as marketers embrace the intimacy of the mobile platform in matching advertisers with consumers.

AdMob founder Omar Hamoui even paid homage to Apple and the iPhone commenting on AdMob's impending sale to Google.

“Then came the iPhone. Suddenly, Apple solved so many problems that had plagued mobile for so long. They showed all of us the way forward and their efforts have led to a landslide of rapid improvements in our space. We were excited by the promise the iPhone represented that we shifted a significant portion of our attention to that device in its very early days. We launched the first iPhone ad units focused on the web and quickly added the capability to run ads in applications," read the blog post.

It continued with "now with the addition of excellent devices from Palm, Nokia, RIM, and plethora of Android powered smartphones, we have all the preconditions necessary for what will be a tidal wave of mobile browsing and app usage. But our business, and the mobile industry in general, owes Apple a debt of gratitude.”

It will be interesting to see in the next few months how the rest of the wireless advertising industry will react to Apple's acquisition of Quattro.

As usual, we will keep you posted.

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Source: Apple.