Media.Net, which powers Bing/Yahoo contextual ads program, acquired by Chinese group for $900 million

Kellogg Brengel

Media.net

Media.net, the tech company which powers Bing and Yahoo’s contextual ad program, is being acquired for $900 million. Bloomberg reported this morning that Media.net is being acquired by a group of Chinese investors. The group is led by the Chairman of Beijing Miteno Communication Technology Company, a provider of cellular towers.

Bloomberg also reports that Miteno “has been ‘moving aggressively’ into mobile advertising and hoped to accelerate the transition through an acquisition.” However, Miteno does not have enough cash to make such a large purchase, so they have worked with a group of investors to finance the acquisition. The sizeable deal is being reported as “the third larget ad-tech acquisition in history.”

Media.net helps automatically select which ads appear on a website based upon the site’s actual content. For example, if you are reading a webpage about hamburger recipes, then Media.net’s technology picks up on the context of that content and places ads for hamburger restaurants on the webpage. Media.net powers contextual ads for Yahoo and Bing.

Media.net was founded by Divyank Turakhia in 2010. He was able to create his firm while remaining the sole shareowner. So by the end of the two-step transaction, the entrepreneur will become $900 million richer. But because the acquisition is taking place in stages through an intermediary group of financiers, we’ll have to wait and see What this could mean for Bing and Yahoo’s contextual ad program.