The acquisition, which had been rumored last week, was confirmed on The Official Google Blog on Monday. In the post, Neal Mohan, Google’s vice president of display advertising, explained the purchase as a way for Google to become more of a one-stop-shop for advertisers. “We often hear from major website publishers that ad management today is still mind-numbingly complicated and inefficient,” Mohan wrote. “We’ve been investing in our publisher tools to try and improve this landscape and have made great progress, but we think we can do even better.”
Mohan goes on to explain that there are a few different ways for publishers to sell ads -- directly, indirectly via an ad network, or via an ad exchange or technology platform. The three options lead some publishers to hire a yield optimization provider like Admeld. Such firms supply technology “to select ads from across these many indirect options, while providing personalized service and support.” The goal of the Admeld buy, Mohan writes, is to make display advertising simpler and more efficient.