Greystripe, a mobile ad network primarily consisting of iPhone games, believes that AdMob?s recent acquisition of mobile ad network aggregator AdWhirl is a conflict of interest that may hurt publishers.

AdMob?s CEO Omar Hamoui broke the news of the deal in an email sent to contacts and media last week, ending a rift with AdWhirl over pulling inventory from San Mateo, CA-based AdMob, one of the leading mobile ad networks (see story). Mobile Marketer's Dan Butcher interviewed San Francisco-based Greystripe?s CEO Michael Chang about his take on the acquisition:

What are the main points of interest regarding the AdMob-AdWhirl deal?
We're not affiliated with AdMob, so we're unable to comment on AdMob or AdWhirl's deal.

What is the potential impact of the deal on developers and mobile advertisers? 
The deal makes little sense for publishers and may, in fact, hurt them.

We believe that it is a conflict of interest for an ad network to own a mediation company. A mediation company needs to be a separate entity to do its job of unbiased optimizing of a number of ad networks.

How will AdMob?s acquisition of AdWhirl affect the mobile ad industry as a whole?
A number of iPhone developers that we work with have told us that they are becoming increasingly skeptical of mediation companies that don't have their best interest in mind and are not transparent in how they share revenue and information.

Publishers would be wise to chose ad networks that can provide them with 100 percent fill rate and the highest CPMs (cost-per-thousand) with the best ad experience.

With which ad mediation companies does Greystripe partner? What do they accomplish for Greystripe?
Greystripe works with Tapjoy, who has a great product.

When we work with ad mediation companies, we make sure that the publisher still maintains a direct link to Greystripe, both with reporting, as well as a direct billing relationship. In this way the publisher always knows where they stand and everyone is transparent, open and accountable.

AdMob's rebuttal
?AdMob understands how important mediation tools are for developers, and we believe that mediation is beneficial for the whole industry when it is open, unbiased and transparent," said Jason Spero, vice president of marketing and managing director for North America at AdMob.

"By acquiring AdWhirl, we will be able to offer an open-source solution in the coming weeks, which will give developers the flexibility to allocate their own inventory and maximize their monetization potential,? he said.

"Since our announcement last week, we?ve received positive feedback from publishers about our plans to offer an open-source solution to the market."