Opera today announced that it has acquired AdColony, a mobile video advertising platform, for $350 million. In a press release Opera said AdColony will be used alongside the Opera’s existing mobile advertising subsidiary, Opera Mediaworks. The company also says that Acolony’s proprietary ‘Instant-Play’ video ad technology eliminates latency and long load times for video playback, alongside some interactive elements.
Opera Mediaworks have been building out a stack of technologies for both advertisers and publishers, including the Opera Mediaworks Ad Exchange (OMAX), creative tools, reporting and analytics, measurement, programmatic buying, and video and rich-media offerings.
Opera have acquired six companies since 2010, including AdMarvel, Mobile Theory, 4th Screen Advertising and Handster, all of which have been integrated into the Opera Mediaworks offering.
Mobile video advertising is the fastest-growing advertising segment in all of digital advertising. Mobile advertising spend is expected to grow to $41.9 billion by 2017, with mobile video advertising showing the highest growth rate, according to Gartner .
