AOL acquires marketing firm Convertro

AOL has snapped up marketing company Convertro for $101 million.

The tech giant announced the acquisition on Wednesday. Convertro is a marketing analysis specialist that works out the kinds of adverts that result in the highest rates of consumer purchases, scrutiny spanning across banner and sidebar ads, as well as television and radio. Convertro's customers include Intuit and Comcast.

AOL said the buyout will streamline targeted and personalized advert creation, and will provide better rates of return for marketers and advertizers on their investments.

The closing purchase price of Convertro is approximately $101 million, funded by $89 million in cash and $2 million in converted stock awards, as well as a $10 million earn-out paid out over 17 months if product development milestones are met.

The transaction follows the recent launch of ONE by AOL, an enterprise platform designed to manage marketing across the full transaction process through online and television-based content.

Tim Armstrong, Chairman and CEO of AOL said:

AOL is making advertising easier for marketers and agencies, as well as publishers. Our agreement to acquire Convertro demonstrates our continued commitment to bring efficiency to the advertising industry through automation and machine learning. Our focus on the AOL Platforms business has positioned AOL for growth as the trend around programmatic advertising continues to transform the industry.

Converto is not the only advertising-based company snapped up by AOL recently. In August, AOL purchased video advertising marketplace Adap.tv for $405 million, and in January this year, content-personalization company Gravity was acquired for $90 million.