Google, a US-listed online search engine, is reportedly planning to buy AdMeld, an advertising services provider backed by media group Time Warner’s corporate venturing unit, for $400m.
News provider TechCrunch said Google was in negotiations after its $150m to $200m offer in February last year was rejected.
AdMeld raised $15m in its series C round in August last year from Time Warner Investments and venture capital firms Norwest Venture Partners, Foundry Group and Spark Capital. This doubled to $30m its venture funding since launch in 2007.
At the time of the C round announcement, Rachel Lam, senior vice-president of Time Warner Investments, said: "AdMeld has outstanding potential to redefine the online advertising marketplace."
At the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Internet Week event recently, Neal Mohan, Google’s vice president of display advertising, said display advertising could grow to be a $200bn industry.