Report: Google to Purchase Adscape
Google has agreed to purchase in-game advertising company Adscape Media for $23 million, says Red Herring, giving it a foothold on the burgeoning industry and putting in contention with Microsoft’s Massive Inc.
Adscape’s technology will let Google place and measure advertising inside video games and virtual worlds. Google will gain Adscape’s Adver-Play system, which places ads directly inside a game world, and Real Virtual Gateway, which can send brand messages through two-way text, audio and video communication.
In January 2006, the Wall Street Journal said that Google was talking with Adscape and hinted that the company could go for around $200 million, the same amount that Microsoft paid for in-game advertising company Massive Inc. last year.
However Massive, an established company, had already partnered with several prominent brands including Coke and Honda. Adscape, only a year old, has not announced any brand partners. The company launched in February 2006 with $3.2 million in venture funding from HIG Ventures.
One source cited by the Red Herring said that Google did not have the experience necessary to be successful in the in-game space. With the buyout, Google gains the patents to all of Adscape’s technology and its management team, which will be moving to Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, California. The deal has not yet been formally announced.
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