Australian advertising agency VOLT Media has been acquired by San Francisco-based company Alphabird, less than six months after the two companies announced an exclusive partnership.
Launched in 2011, VOLT Media produces advertising content across multiple platforms for clients including Dailymotion and Blip. It was founded by Tom Rolph and Kenny Griffiths.
VOLT has also worked with some of Australia biggest media agencies including OMD, Cadreon and Ikon.
The business has been acquired for an undisclosed sum by Alphabird, a global digital publishing solutions company, which is headquartered in San Francisco.
Alphabird guarantees its clients targeted, engaged audiences for online video on a performance basis. It was an early pioneer in the distribution of click-to-play video content.
According to Alphabird chief executive Chase Norlin, the VOLT acquisition marks a very important addition to the company’s suite of digital publisher solutions.
While the terms of the agreement are undisclosed, the transaction is effective immediately.
Alphabird expects the deal to be immediately accretive to earnings and positive operating margins.
VOLT Media will be integrated into Alphabird’s Sydney-based operations, with all of VOLT’s staff to become Alphabird Australia employees. Rolph, however, is no longer in Australia.
“Tom has moved over to the UK… He went back to be with family and stuff. He’s still on board. He’s now working with Alphabird and trying to launch an offer there in the UK,” Griffiths says.
“The reason we wanted to do the deal is because our products complement each other. VOLT doesn’t change day to day but, over the next three months, their products will complement ours and vice versa.”
The acquisition is designed to cement Alphabird’s position as one of the leading publisher solutions companies in the Asia-Pacific region.
Willie Pang, managing director of Alphabird Australia, said the company is “moving aggressively” to offer publishers, agencies and global brands a full range of content, audience, monetisation and data optimisation solutions.
“This acquisition cements our place as the number one supplier of video technology solutions in Australia and we will continue to expand our offering across the Asia-Pacific region in 2013,” Pang said in a statement.
Pang is the former chief executive of Ventures in Digital Media, which was acquired by Alphabird in October last year.
He will oversee the integration and operations of VOLT Media with Alphabird Australia. VOLT’s subsidiary companies will operate under the Alphabird Australia brand.
The acquisition comes less than six months after VOLT Media and Alphabird announced an exclusive partnership.
This partnership extended VOLT’s offering in the video market to enable brands to connect with audiences in multiple ways.
Rolph said at the time VOLT was “thrilled” to have partnered with Alphabird.
“There are many synergies between our companies and we share Alphabird’s vision, making this strategic partnership an exciting prospect for us both,” he said.
“We believe it is a strong move for both parties.”
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