Read on Mr. Web

US-based digital marketing specialist MediaMath has acquired audience targeting tech company Rare Crowds, for an undisclosed sum.

MediaMath hit the acquisition trail in the spring with the purchase of French ad targeting firm Tactads, and after closing a $73.5m Series C round of funding earmarked for ‘global expansion’, opened offices inTokyo, Paris and Sydney, and acquired social media ad platform Upcast.

With the acquisition of Bellevue, WA-based Rare, MediaMath gains a platform called OpenAdStacks, which uses optimization techniques and machine learning algorithms to find targeted media that matches a marketer’s campaign goals and desired audiences across display, mobile, video, social and other digital media. This technology will be integrated with MediaMath’s proprietary TerminalOne operating system to improve clients’ audience targeting. 

As part of the acquisition, Rare Crowds CEO and co-founder Eric Picard (pictured) joins the MediaMath team as Vice President of Strategic Partnerships, which includes MediaMath’s exclusive Akamai relationship. Picard is an ad technology expert, who previously served as Chief Product Officer at digital media planning and buying platform TRAFFIQ, and before this worked at Microsoft, where he latterly set up the Bing Business Portal team. Earlier, he founded ad analytics specialist Bluestreak. 

Mike Lamb, Chief Commercial Officer of MediaMath, comments: ‘We’re especially excited to have Eric leading our efforts to extend programmatic to address the full media plan. The combination of Eric’s experience and leadership with Rare Crowds technology bring us two steps closer to delivering game-changing new capabilities for our clients.’