Ad Pepper Acquires Crystal Contextual Ad Technology

On March 16, Ad Pepper Media acquired contextual targeting technology provider Crystal Reference Systems for cash and stock worth up to $3.5 million.

U.K.-based Crystal Reference Systems is the parent of Crystal Reference and Crystal Semantics. Crystal Reference provides academic reference materials to schools and media outlets, while Crystal Semantics offers Textonomy, which is a complex algorithm that enables the targeting of ads through the use of linguistic tools. These tools go beyond standard statistical algorithms and reportedly distinguish semantic relationships between words and their surrounding context, which are supposed to lead to more relevant and significant results. Textonomy’s capabilities, dubbed “Sense Engine” technology, are patented in both the U.S. and the U.K.

“We envisage that Ad Pepper’s infrastructure, resources and global positioning will enable us to leverage the full power of our product solutions and will help us to roll out new services and business models faster,” said Crystal Reference Systems’ chairman David Crystal.

Crystal is one of the world’s most respected linguists and experts on reference publishing and language. Textonomy required 8 years of research and an investment of about $8 million.

In November, Crystal References was close to selling a controlling stake in its company to Think Partnership. The deal, however, was never finalized, as both parties could not agree to its terms.

Ad Pepper, which is based in the Netherlands and Germany, expects to employ Crystal Semantics’ Textonomy technology with its Webstats4u global ad network. This network includes over 1,000,000 sites across the world.

Sources:

http://www.clickz.com/news/
article.php/3592551

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/
060316/nyth132.html?.v=44