Another Ad Acquisition For Google
Two weeks ago it was AdMob, and today it's Teracent, a three-year-old startup with technology that automatically customizes display ads depending on which geography they're being shown in, when they're being viewed and so on. Teracent had raised nearly $7 million, according to Thomson Reuters -- around $5 million of that in Series A funding from NEA back in March 2007. Neither NEA's Krishna "Kittu" Kolluri nor Peter Sonsini, who are on Teracent's board, was available for comment, and Google is not disclosing the terms of the acquisition or many details. But one VC who's invested in advertising startups -- Bo Peabody of Village Ventures -- told me recently that Google has been behind in display ads, partly because of the difference in how companies and VCs on the East and West Coasts view advertising. So is Google catching up there too?
