During La French Touch Conference last week, Appnexus President Michael Rubenstein revealed that Appnexus had made an acquisition in France in the weeks prior, namely Alenty, a Paris-based viewability firm. The news had already been announced, although under-covered, and is an investment by Appnexus into a rapidly growing part of the Advertising space, viewability.
http://youtu.be/wbV7JVNLoIk?t=34m
Start at 34:00 to see Rubenstein’s Panel
As Rubenstein pointed out last week, having offices in France is quite normal – Appnexus had been doing business in France for quite some time; however this latest acquisition marks a big change for the company, as they are now producing IP in France, the only non-US R&D office to date.
France’s penchant for Advertising Technology is not without precedent: of course, Criteo, but also eBuzzing & Teads, StickyAdsTV, Vidcoin, ClarityAd (French founders in New York, but still) – the point is, somewhere buried in France’s penchant for mathematics is a key that has unlocked innovation in the Advertising space. Clearly, Appnexus has found a way to tap into that.