CallGenie Buys Mobile “Ad Exchange” PhoneSpots

Voice services provider CallGenie announced the acquisition of mobile content provider and ad exchange PhoneSpots. The mostly stock transaction was valued at $5.75 million and provides a range of new client relationships and capabilities to Canada-based CallGenie. PhoneSpots has been around since 1999 and pioneered the “send to mobile” feature now in widespread use on […]

Chat with SearchBot

Voice services provider CallGenie announced the acquisition of mobile content provider and ad exchange PhoneSpots. The mostly stock transaction was valued at $5.75 million and provides a range of new client relationships and capabilities to Canada-based CallGenie.


PhoneSpots has been around since 1999 and pioneered the “send to mobile” feature now in widespread use on local search sites. PhoneSpots originally partnered with European mobile operators to offer enhanced results (additional content and links) from directory assistance queries when users opted to receive them as text messages. Most recently, PhoneSpots announced its first US customer relationship with AT&T, to power the YellowPages.com “send to mobile” feature and the company’s YP411 SMS platform.

CallGenie offered a “voice in, voice out” approach to content and ad delivery. However, that approach is incomplete in a rapidly evolving market, and the PhoneSpots acquisition allows the company to deliver mobile content and ads via text message or WAP in addition to voice.

We previously wrote about PhoneSpots’ mobile ad exchange. There’s also some additional information on LocalMobileSearch.net.


Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.


About the author

Greg Sterling
Contributor
Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land, a member of the programming team for SMX events and the VP, Market Insights at Uberall.

Get the must-read newsletter for search marketers.