Promises "open, unbiased and transparent tool" for mobile publishers.
Mobile advertising firm AdMob has announced its acquisition of AdWhirl, one of the most popular mobile ad exchanges.
It's a big and potentially controversial deal, because of recent clashes between the two companies. AdWhirl's service lets mobile publishers choose ads from a variety of networks, including AdMob but also rivals Quattro, Videoegg and Mobclix.
Earlier this year, AdMob threatened to stop allowing its ads to be served through AdWhirl's platform, before delaying its withdrawal, and now acquiring it. Or, to put it mischievously: they didn't like it so much, they bought the company.
The problem now is whether these rivals will continue to use AdWhirl, now it's owned by AdMob. Mobclix's co-founder Sunil Verma has already criticised the deal: "I don't understand how it remains unbiased or why other networks would want to be a part of that."
AdMob is trying to fend off these concerns by promising to make the AdWhirl platform open-source, and saying that it won't have access to sensitive pricing data of rival networks.
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"Our goal is to provide a much needed open, unbiased and transparent tool for mobile publishers who would like to build financially rewarding businesses that are fuelled by advertising," says CEO Omar Hamoui (pictured).
Is all this important? Well, 1,000 mobile publishers are using AdWhirl, so those claims of unbias and transparency will be closely scrutinised.
Meanwhile, with AdMob's own figures showing that free apps continue to dominate the app stores of Apple, Google and others, consolidation in the mobile ad platform market will have a material impact - for better or worse - on the ability of developers and publishers to make money from mobile entertainment.
