Twitter to sell mobile ads firm MoPub to AppLovin for $1 billion

FILE PHOTO: A Twitter logo is seen outside the company headquarters in San Francisco, California, U.S., January 11, 2021. REUTERS/Stephen Lam/File Photo

(Reuters) -Twitter Inc said on Wednesday it has agreed to sell mobile ads company MoPub to AppLovin Corp for $1.05 billion in cash.

MoPub, which generated about $188 million in annual revenue for Twitter last year, allows companies to keep track of ad inventory in real time, similar to what Alphabet Inc’s Google can do with DoubleClick.

“The sale of MoPub positions us to concentrate more of our efforts on the massive potential for ads on our website and in our apps, Twitter Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal said.

The sale to AppLovin was unanimously approved by Twitter’s board, according to the microblogging platform.

AppLovin, which recently went public in went April, is a mobile gaming company with a portfolio that includes more than 200 free-to-play mobile games, such as “Word Connect,” “Slap Kings” and “Bingo Story”.

The sale will allow Twitter to invest in “the core products that position it for long-term growth”, Twitter Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey said.

Twitter has made a series of deals for privately held tech firms this year, including podcast app Breaker, and email newsletter startup Revue.

The social media company bought MoPub for nearly $350 million in 2013.

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