Tapad, a New York-based marketing technology company, has been acquired by Telenor Group.
Telenor, a major mobile operator present in the Nordics, CEE & Asia, will buy approximately 95% of Tapad for USD $360m, on a debt and cash-free 100% basis. The main sellers are founder and CEO Are Traasdahl and his investment company Spring Capital (in total 46.5%), FirstMark Capital, Firsthand Technology, Avalon Ventures, WPP and Metamorphic Ventures. Traasdahl and co-founder and CTO Dag Liodden have together retained a 5% stake in the company.
The acquisition, whose closing is subject to regulatory approvals and expected to take place in the first quarter of 2016, will allow Telenor to enter the advertising technology market and gain skills within digital marketing and analytics. Following the close, Tapad will be operated as a stand-alone company. Traasdahl and Liodden will maintain their positions ad CEO and CTO, respectively.
Established in 2010, Tapad delivers unified cross-device marketing technology solutions that give publishers, marketers and technology providers a holistic view of consumers across devices and screens, including smartphones, tablets, home computers and smart TVs.
Within its media business, Tapad currently has more than 160 of the top U.S. brands among its customers and benefits from over 50 data technology licensing partnerships.
FinSMEs
01/02/2016