Apple Considered Purchasing AdMob?

MacRumors

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Original poster

Apr 12, 2001

68,630

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• Nov 16, 2009

• #1

Bloomberg reports that Apple is reported to have approached mobile advertising firm AdMob about a possible acquisition just prior Google's announcement that it had agreed to purchase the company for $750 million in stock.

AdMob Inc. was approached by Apple Inc. about an acquisition before the company agreed to a $750 million offer from Google Inc., according to people familiar with the matter.

Apple contacted AdMob a few weeks before Google made its bid, said one of the people, who declined to be identified because the negotiations weren't public.

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It is unclear from the report's sources the extent of Apple's seriousness regarding the potential offer, but any interest at all on Apple's part appears to reveal that the company has considered moving beyond its traditional hardware and software offerings onto Google's turf of online and mobile application advertising.

Buying AdMob would have allowed Apple to expand into online advertising, a strategy that Nokia Oyj is pursuing, Weide said.

"If a lot of traffic goes through my devices, why can't I become the middleman that serves ads against that inventory?" Weide said. "AdMob would have allowed them to do that quickly."

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Following on the heels of news that Apple is hiring iPhone game developers, Apple may be looking to move beyond simply providing the tools and infrastructure that have fed the iPhone's success and begin enhanced efforts to pursue its own App Store content and other revenue streams associated with the applications available in the store.

Article Link: Apple Considered Purchasing AdMob?

 

Article Link

https://www.macrumors.com/2009/11/16/apple-considered-purchasing-admob/

edesignuk

Moderator emeritus

Mar 25, 2002

19,232

2

London, England

• Nov 16, 2009

• #2

As if they don't control enough already.

We decide what carrier you get your handset on, we decide what apps you get to use, we decide what/how you are served ads.

No great loss for iPhone users IMO.

 

Mykbibby

macrumors 6502a

Jun 1, 2007

559

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Palm Springs, CA

• Nov 16, 2009

• #3

Perhaps this could have to do with the Steve Jobs Mac OS built-in advertising patent?

 

ChazUK

macrumors 603

Feb 3, 2008

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• Nov 16, 2009

• #4

Very interesting. Are there any big alternative suppliers Apple can pursue instead of admob?

 

thejadedmonkey

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May 28, 2005

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• Nov 16, 2009

• #5

Isn't AdMob the company that most developers use to place ads in their programs? So wouldn't that make Apple the ad-supplier, gatekeeper, and device manufacturer? Is that sort of practice (vertical integration I think it's called?) even legal?

 

guzhogi

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Aug 31, 2003

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Wherever my feet take me…

• Nov 16, 2009

• #6

ChazUK said:

Very interesting. Are there any big alternative suppliers Apple can pursue instead of admob?

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Google comes to mind.




Obviously, this is a little too big. Plus, think how mad Microsoft will be.

 

inkswamp

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Jan 26, 2003

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• Nov 16, 2009

• #7

edesignuk said:

We decide what carrier you get your handset on, we decide what apps you get to use, we decide what/how you are served ads.

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Save the drama.

Given Apple's general philosophy of non-intrusive UI design, I would take them as an ad server over others any day. Wouldn't you love to see a ban on animated, flashing, dancing ads?

 

DipDog3

macrumors 65816

Sep 20, 2002

1,193

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• Nov 16, 2009

• #8

Really, why? Google buying AdMob I can see that happening.

Apple will just create their own ad system and have it included in XCode.

 

K

kzin

macrumors 6502

Jul 20, 2005

304

0

• Nov 16, 2009

• #9

I believe that's supposed to be "Nokia Ovi" not "Oyj".

 

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notstevelam

macrumors newbie

Nov 14, 2009

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• Nov 16, 2009

• #10

inkswamp said:

Save the drama.

Given Apple's general philosophy of non-intrusive UI design, I would take them as an ad server over others any day. Wouldn't you love to see a ban on animated, flashing, dancing ads?

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and what do animated flashing dancing ads have anything to do with the iphone?

 

ChazUK

macrumors 603

Feb 3, 2008

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• Nov 16, 2009

• #11

kzin said:

I believe that's supposed to be "Nokia Ovi" not "Oyj".

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I think the Oyj means that it is a "public stock company": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osakeyhtiö

 

S

stujmac26

macrumors regular

Mar 4, 2009

119

0

• Nov 16, 2009

• #12

kzin said:

I believe that's supposed to be "Nokia Ovi" not "Oyj".

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Nokia Oyj is the full name of the listed company - Oyj is the Finnish equivalent of a Limited Company (LLC, Ltd, etc)

You learn something new every day

 

ChazUK

macrumors 603

Feb 3, 2008

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• Nov 16, 2009

• #13

inkswamp said:

Wouldn't you love to see a ban on animated, flashing, dancing ads?

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Have there been many "animated, flashing, dancing ads" on the mobile platforms so far?

Every Admob ad I've seen has been a simple graphic.

 

S

stujmac26

macrumors regular

Mar 4, 2009

119

0

• Nov 16, 2009

• #14

ChazUK said:

I think the Oyj means that it is a "public stock company": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osakeyhtiö

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Beaten to it!

 

K

kzin

macrumors 6502

Jul 20, 2005

304

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• Nov 16, 2009

• #15

stujmac26 said:

You learn something new every day

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Indeed. Thanks for the correction(s)

 

inkswamp

macrumors 68030

Jan 26, 2003

2,953

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• Nov 16, 2009

• #16

ChazUK said:

Have there been many "animated, flashing, dancing ads" on the mobile platforms so far?

Every Admob ad I've seen has been a simple graphic.

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All it would to take is for advertisers to demand it and you'll start seeing it. Would be nice to have a company in the mix that has a record of not caving in to demands like that.

 

nwcs

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Sep 21, 2009

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• Nov 16, 2009

• #17

thejadedmonkey said:

Isn't AdMob the company that most developers use to place ads in their programs? So wouldn't that make Apple the ad-supplier, gatekeeper, and device manufacturer? Is that sort of practice (vertical integration I think it's called?) even legal?

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Why wouldn't it be legal? If people don't like it there are many other devices and plans to choose from.

 

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alent1234

macrumors 603

Jun 19, 2009

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• Nov 16, 2009

• #18

DipDog3 said:

Really, why? Google buying AdMob I can see that happening.

Apple will just create their own ad system and have it included in XCode.

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then there is the small detail of deploying tens of thousands of servers with the right software to run the backend

 

etoiles

macrumors 6502a

Jun 12, 2002

835

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Where the air is crisp

• Nov 16, 2009

• #19

Also remember that Admob doesn't just serve ads, they also collect a ton of iphone (and other) usage data... which is all in the hands of google, now, who you might have noticed is trying to compete with the iPhone.

 

LagunaSol

macrumors 601

Apr 3, 2003

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• Nov 16, 2009

• #20

alent1234 said:

then there is the small detail of deploying tens of thousands of servers with the right software to run the backend

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You don't think Apple is capable of this (iTunes Store)?

 

N

Nuvi

macrumors 65816

Feb 7, 2008

1,099

810

• Nov 16, 2009

• #21

This is something I don't want from Apple. Efficient advertising? OS integrated advertising? Apple being the gate keeper of all on their mobile platform? No thank you...

 

A

alent1234

macrumors 603

Jun 19, 2009

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• Nov 16, 2009

• #22

LagunaSol said:

You don't think Apple is capable of this (iTunes Store)?

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apple will have to steal the people from Google or AdMob who know how to write the back end software. Don't know the whole history of AdMob, but Google bought DoubleClick a few years ago just for this and I remember reading that AdSense was another buyout.

it takes years to write and debug software like this

 

I

iPhoney:)

macrumors member

Jan 15, 2009

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• Nov 16, 2009

• #23

Apple should buy Yahoo, end of story! Google's tentacles are in just about every nook and cranny of the internet, it's time someone gave them a run for their money

 

redgaz26

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Mar 6, 2007

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• Nov 16, 2009

• #24

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7D11 Safari/528.16)

iPhoney:) said:

Apple should buy Yahoo, end of story! Google's tentacles are in just about every nook and cranny of the internet, it's time someone gave them a run for their money

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Yeah. "Yapple" sounds great!!!!!!!!

 

redgaz26

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• Nov 16, 2009

• #25

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7D11 Safari/528.16)

Or maybe apphoo!!!