AdMob buys mobile ad network aggregator AdWhirl

By Mickey Alam Khan

August 28, 2009

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AdMob CEO Omar Hamoui said his company has bought mobile ad network aggregator AdWhirl.

Mr. Hamoui broke the news in an email sent afterhours Eastern time yesterday to contacts and media. The acquisition, whose price was not disclosed, ends a rift with AdWhirl over pulling inventory from San Mateo, CA-based AdMob, one of the leading mobile ad networks. Here is Mr. Hamoui's open letter:

"Over the past several months we have listened closely to the developer community to better understand the role of mediation in the mobile ecosystem. As a developer myself, I definitely understand how mediation is a valuable tool for developers, and our goal at AdMob is to provide developers with choice and control over their inventory, and help them efficiently maximize their revenue.

"We appreciate everyone's patience as we evaluated the mediation options that existed in the market and tried to work through what would be best for the industry. From my perspective as a developer, I realize that the lack of clarity in terms of the direction AdMob would take with mediation was not convenient for you. Unfortunately we could not share many details as we spoke with key mediation players due to the sensitive nature of these conversations. This evaluation process brought us to what I believe will be a key moment in the future of monetization tools for app developers.

"I am happy to announce that AdMob has acquired AdWhirl, and in addition to maintaining AdWhirl's current functionality, we will soon offer iPhone application developers a much needed open source mediation solution.

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"Offering an open source solution will enable us to ensure advertisers and publishers a high quality experience with mobile advertising and publishing, and introduce an open, transparent choice into the market which has not existed to date. The open source solution will be available for all iPhone app developers and advertising networks, whether they currently work with AdMob directly or not.

"We will have details regarding our open source solution, including the additional functionality we plan to offer, within the coming weeks. Developers currently using AdWhirl will soon have full support for AdMob ads. Developers with questions or feedback can continue to reach us at .

"As always, AdMob's focus is on furthering the growth of the mobile ecosystem, and providing a comprehensive suite of tools for both advertisers and publishers is a critical part of this. This is an important milestone for us that builds on the publisher tools we've given publishers over the last year, such as House Ads, Download Tracking and rich media iPhone ad units. Our hope is that this open source mediation solution will further ensure that developers can easily and effectively promote their apps, monetize their traffic, and overall further the growth of their businesses. For those of you who are current AdMob partners, thank you for your business; and to those of you who will be new to AdMob, we're looking forward to working with you.

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"Omar"