Rocket Fuel to buy programmatic company [x+1]

Rocket Fuel has announced that it has entered a definitive agreement with programmatic marketing company [x+1] in a cash and stock transaction worth an estimated $230 million.

Led by chief executive John Nardone, [x+1] is a multi-channel platform that aims to help marketers leverage their data assets and optimise the customer experience across both paid and owned channels.

The deal hopes to expand Rocket Fuel’s portfolio to a larger and more addressable market through a combination of [x+1]’s marketing and data management platform and Rocket Fuel’s artificial intelligence and big data technology.

Transaction benefits are expected to include: providing CMOs a unified platform enabling “integrated storytelling” across digital touchpoints; extending Rocket Fuel into new channels; achieving new levels of performance for both companies’ clients; and enhancing opportunities to optimise margin.

Rocket Fuel, which describes itself as a leading provider of artificial intelligence advertising solutions, hit headlines recently when the Financial Times reported that part of a Mercedez-Benz online advertising campaign – a client of Rocket Fuel – was viewed more often by automated computer programmes than by human beings.

According to the FT, in a sample of ad impressions brokered by Rocket Fuel over three weeks, Telemetry – a UK company that specialises in detecting ad fraud – found that 57% were “viewed” by automated computer programs rather than real people.

It has sparked a wider industry debate, with Newsline columnist Dominic Mills describing the current state of the online advertising system as a “toxic cesspit of online fraud“, while VivaKi’s Marco Bertozzi said that by allowing such conditions to exist, the industry is “effectively turning the CPM (cost per thousand) into a CPN (cost per nada).”

The transaction between Rocket Fuel and [x+1] is anticipated to be closed in the fourth quarter of 2014.