Targeting Business Peer39 Sold to Private Equity Firm

Amazon's semantic ad technology arm Peer39 has been acquired by private equity firm O3 Industries. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but reports suggest that the division was sold for $18m.

Peer39 provides AI-powered contextual targeting and fraud protection technology for digital advertising. The firm says that by taking a holistic semantic approach that goes beyond the words on the page and looks at the relationship between the words, Peer39 gains a better understanding of what the page's content actually says.

In 2012, ad targeting group DG acquired Peer39 for $15.5m, and two years later, DG's online ad business - which included Peer39 - was spun off into the new company called Sizmek. In March this year, Sizmek filed for bankruptcy and Amazon stepped in to acquire Sizmek's ad server and DCO personalization tools. Following Peer39's sale to O3 Industries, the business will be operated as a stand-alone entity with Mario Diez and Alex White at the helm.

Daniel Ozen, President of O3 Industries, comments: 'With GDPR in Europe and coming regulations in California, contextual data will become increasingly important for advertisers and agencies. The industry's reliance on third party data is clearly an issue. Companies like Peer39 are well positioned to capitalize on that increased interest. Under Mario and Alex's leadership, we believe Peer39 will build upon its already strong market presence and become the 'go to' partner for contextual based page and video data, as well as brand safety needs.'

Web sites: www.o3indus.com and www.peer39.com .