Amobee to buy Turn

Singtel subsidiary Amobee, a global digital marketing technology company serving brands such as Airbnb, Dell EMC and Lexus, has signed an agreement to acquire Turn, a data and analytics solutions provider, at an enterprise value of US$310 million.

Turn allows marketers to better understand customer interactions across ad formats and devices and also offers programmatic advertisement buying capabilities. The acquisition will enable Amobee to offer marketers an independent end-to-end advertising and data management platform across all channels, formats and devices, access to proprietary Amobee Brand Intelligence insights as well as advanced analytics and media planning capabilities. 

Samba Natarajan, Singtel’s CEO of Group Digital Life, said, “With marketers increasingly shifting from traditional to digital media to engage consumers, global digital ad spend is expected to exceed US$200 billion in 2017*. The strategic acquisition of Turn strengthens Amobee’s technological edge in the rapidly evolving market of digital advertising and accelerates its growth into a significant global digital marketing player. It will also prime Amobee for expansion beyond the US and into the Asia Pacific, where the Singtel Group reaches some 640 million customers across 22 countries.”

Amobee’s CEO Kim Perell, said, "This acquisition makes Amobee one of the largest independent buy-side marketing technology providers globally, boosts our data analytics capabilities and understanding of consumers, and provides a strong foundation for our future growth. Effectively powering advertisers’ digital marketing is about enabling them to better understand and reach their customers, and enhance the way they engage them, on a global scale. To differentiate and capitalise on the growing market opportunity, we will offer world-class technology paired with advanced data and insights.”

Bruce Falck, CEO of Turn, said, “Turn’s vision is to help marketers understand what works, what doesn’t, and why, by providing a powerful insights, analytics and programmatic buying platform. Today is a significant moment for us and a recognition of the quality of our technology platform. As a part of Amobee, we will be able to enhance the value delivered to our customers and partners on a global scale and accelerate innovation in this space.”

The acquisition is subject to regulatory approvals and fulfilment of closing conditions, and expected to be completed within 1H17.

*Source: eMarketer, September 2016.