AOL Buys Analytics Tech Firm Convertro for $101m

Online news and content provider AOL has acquired attribution modeling and marketing analytics technology specialist Convertro, in a deal valued at approximately $101m.

Convertro, which has offices in Santa Monica, New York and Israel, helps marketers and agencies maximize their return on advertising spend, by providing insights into each channel, format, ad creative and audience segment. Its attribution model combines marketing cost and conversion data, including in-store, to help optimize spend across all online and off-line marketing channels.

In a statement, AOL said the combination of Convertro and its own platforms will enable marketers to identify and value each consumer touch point, from first exposure to conversion. The acquisition price is comprised of approximately $89m in cash, around $2m in converted stock awards, and a $10m earn-out payable over a period of up to seventeen months, subject to satisfaction of certain product development agreements.

Jeff Zwelling (pictured), CEO of Convertro, comments: 'We believe the future of attribution is applying this data to programmatic buying and automated analysis. Integrating with AOL is going to bring our leading technology into the hands of some of the world's leading and biggest advertisers and we couldn't be more excited.'

Web sites: www.aol.com and www.convertro.com .