Pixels, the Hong Kong-headquartered online advertising company founded by Kevin Huang in 2002, has sold a majority stake to San Francisco-based marketing cloud company Gravity4.
The deal, which sees Gravity4 take on 93.7 per cent ownership of Pixels, marks the former’s entry into Asia, giving it access through Pixels’ offices in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and Shanghai.
Gravity4 says it intends to buy the outstanding 6.3 per cent of Pixels shares in the next few months and integrate the company into the Gravity4 Marketing Cloud.
Huang will continue to lead the company in Asia as regional MD, Asia, Gravity4, with an additional role to drive expansion strategy, sales, business development and operations in Asia. All of his existing team remain in place.
The deal comes just over a year after Pixels was formed from the merger of three different companies – online ad network Adsfactor, mobile ads firm Snap Mobile and online video ad network Adsfactor.TV – into one.
Huang told Mumbrella about what the deal means to him personally: “I’m very proud of the work we have done and what we have achieved in the 14 years. From a small four person outfit, together with my co-founders, Winky Chan and Belinda Montes, we sought to build a business based on honesty, trust and integrity coupled with a lot and I mean a lot of hard work.”
“Despite constant no’s ‘we don’t believe in online advertising’ in our early days, we were persistent and worked towards what we believed was right. We worked hard and smart to offer solutions and advertising products we believe would meet customer’s advertising needs,” he said.
“The acquisition by Gravity4 is a testament to the great work my team has done and will continue to do. This deal offers a global playing field for us and to be able to compete at a global level and ultimately a win for our clients, as we are now able to offer end to end digital marketing solutions including DMP, DSP and Enterprise Apps from Gravity4 and continue to invest in our (Pixels’) premium brand business. Our employees are now also proud to be part of a fast growing Silicon Valley company.”
Gurbaksh Chahal, chairman and CEO of Gravity4, said in a press release: “Pixels not only boasts one of the smartest management teams I’ve ever met, but they have also built a great business and a mobile DCO platform that we can’t wait to deploy on a global level. We’re also very excited about entering Asia and introducing our marketing cloud and programmatic offering to this dynamic market.”
Source: http://www.mumbrella.asia/2015/11/pixels-acquired-by-marketing-cloud-firm-gravity4/#more-56864, 17 Nov 2015