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Ve, a UK based eCommerce conversion company , has bought out the digital advertising company GDM Digital in a $12 million deal, it has been revealed this morning. This heftily priced acquisition of GDM is a further indication of Ve’s growing interest in digital advertising. This deal moves their client base north of 6,000 online companies.
GDM, who currently have firms like Microsoft, Coral, IBM and Audi on their books, will be absorbed completely by Ve, who will be retaining all 42 GDM staff. This will boost Ve’s staff numbers to over 500 worldwide. GDM, which specializes in performance trading and real-time biddable media, will now offer clients the Ve Platform to acquire, engage and convert customers at every stage of the e-commerce journey, in addition to a complete digital advertising service.
Ed Stevens, CEO and co-founder of GDM Digital noted that: ‘We’re very excited to join Ve. GDM Digital has established itself as an innovative and fast growth digital advertising company and Ve is a multi award-winning UK tech success story, therefore agreeing to become part of its journey made perfect sense. Together we’ll be able to offer online businesses a more comprehensive digital advertising service and be a leading player in the global ecommerce and ad tech industries.’
David J. Brown, CEO. co-founder of Ve, said: ‘What sets GDM apart from other ad tech companies is the incredible skillset and expertise of its staff. With all 42 of GDM’s talented staff on board, Ve will be able to expand its digital marketing offering rapidly. ‘Digital advertising is becoming a big part of our business because of the natural affinity it shares with our other online conversion apps. Ve is growing very quickly in emerging markets, particularly in Asia, where there is also a huge demand for ad tech services.’
Stevens is expected to join Ve as a commercial director, while GDM’s London office is expected to be absorbed by Ve’s home base in Farringdon. While GDM will continue to trade under it’s own name for the rest of the year, it’s expected to be rolled into VeAds come 2015.