- Twitter Inc (NYSE: TWTR) recently announced it is buying mobile ad company CrossInstall. These are the details about the deal.
Twitter Inc (NYSE: TWTR) recently announced it is buying mobile ad company CrossInstall. The terms of the deal were undisclosed. The 70 employees working at CrossInstall will be joining Twitter going forward.
What does CrossInstall do? CrossInstall is known as a mobile-only DSP that specializes in user acquisition using its own proprietary creative technologies like playable and interactive units. CrossInstall launched in 2012 and the company did not raise external funding.
“Nearly 8 years ago we started CrossInstall with the goal of creating a world-class programmatic ad platform. We started small. There were 5 co-founders and a handful of employees working in a windowless office in downtown San Francisco. We had no funding and very little tech. Nobody knew what a “playable ad” was and the term “programmatic” was still being used by every ad platform even though few in mobile knew what it meant,” said CrossInstall in a blog post. “Fast forward eight years. We have close to 70 employees across 5 global offices, a vast network of designers and developers working on creative projects, and a world-class roster of advertisers. We’ve developed a state of the art machine learning system. We’ve created thousands of fun and engaging playable ads. And programmatic lived up to the hype, becoming a standard tool for every UA manager. It’s been an amazing ride so far.”
The co-founders of CrossInstall include Jeff Marshall, Bobby McFarland, Peter Kassakian, and Greg Lin. Prior to CrossInstall, Marshall, McFarland, and Lin worked at Adknowledge.
The majority of CrossInstall’s customers are gaming companies. Some of CrossInstall’s customers include Jam City, PuzzleSocial, and SGN.
CrossInstall will work to expand Twitter’s reach into all areas of app install and performance advertising while also increasing the value MoPub offers for mobile app developers.
“We have made great progress already, but there is more work to do. I’m looking forward to working with CrossInstall and seeing the great work that will come from this. We look forward to welcoming you to the flock!” said Bruce Falck, Revenue Product Lead at Twitter. “We also believe this acquisition will further increase MoPub’s value to mobile app developers, another critical part of our business.”
In a recent earnings call, Twitter CFO Ned Segal pointed out that developing revenue products is the “number one priority” for the company. This includes mobile app promotions (MAP).
As of now, CrossInstall is going to operate as a standalone unit for helping app developers.
