AOL Acquires U.K. Affiliate Marketing Firm buy.at
Firm has offices in London, Newcastle and most recently New York.
Firm has offices in London, Newcastle and most recently New York.
AOL has acquired U.K.-based international affiliate network buy.at for an undisclosed sum. The firm, which has offices in London, Newcastle and most recently New York, will be incorporated into Advertising.com ad network, part of AOL’s Platform A organization.
The news comes as AOL’s parent company, Time Warner, announced it would separate the unit’s ad-related offerings from its access business and warned Q1 ad revenues will be flat.
The buy.at deal is the fifth ad-related acquisition by AOL in the past year, with others including contextual advertising firm Quigo and behavioral targeting company Tacoda. Earlier this week the company announced the purchase of Goowy, a widget technology firm it plans to use to enhance its widget ad offerings.
“The buy.at technology will complement the other solutions on Platform A perfectly, and will enable us to provide solutions for advertisers that we didn’t already have,” said Brendan Condon, MD International of Advertising.com.
Quoted in a press release, AOL Chairman and CEO Randy Falco said, “This acquisition further enhances our Platform A advertising offerings by enabling us to offer a new set of advertiser and publisher products.”
Buy.at recently opened an office on New York’s Wall Street with the intention of “shaking up” the U.S. affiliate market. Speaking with ClickZ news in December, buy.at President Malcolm Cowley described plans to aggressively expand its operations here, sentiments that were echoed today by buy.at CEO Kevin Cornils.
“We’re focusing on the U.S. market and on building a U.S. presence,” Cornils said. “This puts us in a stronger position from which to do that.”
Jeff Molander, CEO of affiliate marketing consulting firm Molander and Associates states that the news should come as no surprise, in light of AOL’s attempts to acquire TradeDoubler last year. He added he sees an opportunity for buy.at to serve advertisers through focused partnerships with ad agencies that compete with the likes of Linkshare, Commission Junction and DoubleClick Performics.
“As I see it, buy.at is strategically positioned to capitalize on an under-served, lucrative niche — large ad agencies which already have search marketing expertise” he said.
This story has been updated to clarify Jeff Molander’s statement on buy.at’s market position.
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