Bengaluru : Mobile ad network firm InMobi has denied claims it will sell its business to advertising rival Google, with the chief executive instead enthusing over an impending IPO.
The company, which works with advertisers to serve ads to smartphones using detailed data collection, on Wednesday (11 March) circulated a memo among its employees which was picked up by the Times of India.
Dismissing buy-out talks, it read: “If you like the fact that we are not selling, let me hear a big round of applause from the floor.”
Naveen Tewari, chief executive of the Bangalore-based firm, told the New York Times: “We are the only large mobile advertising player outside of Google and Facebook; I would argue that anyone would be happy having us as an asset.”
Instead the CEO said the company is focused on stock market flotation: “There’s a huge level of pride in taking this to an IPO in India. And I think we’re going to do that.”
The company claims to reach 1bn active mobile devices globally, out-reached only by Google.
Rick Jones, head of marketing North America at InMobi last week told The Drum that mobile native advertising could become all the more common in 2015.
