GroupM Snaps Up German Ad Personalization Specialist

WPP's media investment management unit GroupM has acquired Berlin-based digital ad targeting specialist plista, for an undisclosed sum.

Founded in 2008 by Dominik Matyka, Christian Laase and Andreas Richter, plista employs around 100 people, operates in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and for the year ended 31st December 2012 had revenues of EUR 3.9m. The company uses a proprietary data-driven platform to deliver content and ads tailored to the interests of individual site visitors using previous reading and click-through behavior. In a statement, GroupM says it sees 'great potential' in developing plista on a global level as part of its digital specialist portfolio, parallel with audience profiling specialist Xaxis and performance marketing provider Quisma.

Matyka (pictured) comments: 'All of us at plista look forward to being part of the GroupM family and, by extension, part of WPP. This agreement will allow us not only to realize our growth objectives, but more importantly to make substantive and forward-looking contributions to the marketing plans of our and GroupM's clients across Europe.'

Web sites: www.groupm.com and www.plista.com .