Oracle just announced that it has acquired ad measurement company Moat.
Founded in 2010, Moat helps advertisers and publishers measure whether people see and interact with online ads. The need to create what CEO Jonah Goodhart has called “the currency for digital advertising” seems increasingly important given advertiser concerns around viewability, fraud and trust, and Moat has been working with some big names, including Nestle, Procter & Gamble and Unilever on the advertiser side, as well as ESPN, Facebook and Snapchat on the publisher side.
And while Moat raised $50 million just over a year ago, the funding landscape for adtech companies hasn’t been great, leading to predictions of more acquisitions and consolidation. (Moat raised more than $67 million total from investors including SV Angel, Mayfield Fund and Insight Venture Partners).
Oracle, meanwhile, has been moving aggressively into digital advertising and marketing over the past few years, with acquisitions like Vitrue and BlueKai.
The company says Moat will continue to operate as “an independent platform within Oracle Data Cloud,” with the Moat team joining Oracle.
“It is with great enthusiasm that we join forces with Oracle Data Cloud,” Goodhart said in the acquisition release. “When Oracle approached us about working together, we began to see the huge potential to jointly drive innovation. At our core, we believe there is an opportunity to fundamentally improve marketing and storytelling by brands and publishers through better data and analytics.”
The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
