Glam Buys Ad Delivery and Optimization Firm

Glam Media has acquired ad technology start-up AdaptiveAds in a bid to improve its brand ads platform with better audience targeting, ad optimization and brand engagement tracking,

The purchase of AdaptiveAds, a venture-backed display ad targeting and optimization company with facilities in California and India, coincides with the opening of Glam offices in Mumbai and the establishment of an “engineering presence” in Pune, India, according to the acquisition announcement.

AdaptiveAds was formed three years ago. Its U.S. employees will join Glam’s engineering and product development teams in Brisbane, Calif., said Glam, and its co-founder and CEO, Yogesh Sharma, is becoming Glam’s VP, general manager of ad solutions.

Sanjay Sharma, AdaptiveAds’ other co-founder, will oversee the team in India. Glam said the acquisition will add about 20 people to its employee roster, bringing it to 200.

With the acquisition, AdaptiveAds’ ad serving platform is being renamed GlamAdapt and its self-service ad technology will become the platform for GlamAds, a self-service brand ad system for premium display ads. Additionally, AdaptiveAds’ BrandWords contextual display ads are being re-named Glam AdaptAds.

Glam Media has more than 900 publishers in its vertical content networks. In December it reached more than 100 million unique visitors for the first time, according to comScore Media Metrix.

In a statement, Fernando Ruarte, co-founder and CTO of Glam Media, said Glam has always relied on technology innovation to differentiate itself from competition. Glam Media CEO Samir Arora said the acquisition “supercharges Glam Media’s brand engagement technology, delivering insight into how ads behave with different audiences and giving brands the ability to dynamically act based on this knowledge.”