AdColony and Opera in the Los Angeles Times

As you know, AdColony is an LA-based company with roots in the City of Angels through-and-through. Though we’ve taken on a global presence with AdColonists and Opera team members across the globe, it comes with a huge sense of pride to be featured in today’s LA Times. LAT staff writer Paresh Dave paid the team a visit on the heels of our Opera Software acquisition announcement, and we’re pleased to share a fantastic, well-researched article from the business section.

Below is an excerpt from the feature story, “Opera Software to Buy Brentwood Start-up AdColony.” Check it out here or pick up a local print edition (Tues. 7/15) for the full scoop!

Tap to watch a TV show clip on Lifetime’s iPad app, and a high-definition video ad for the Home Depot begins playing, it seems, even before your finger has left the screen.

Shaving milliseconds to get that and thousands of other video ads loaded faster on mobile devices has earned a Brentwood start-up millions. In a recently announced deal expected to close this fall, AdColony is being acquired by Opera Software of Norway for as much as $350 million. Opera, which offers a speedy Internet browser that’s popular in developing countries, says the addition of AdColony will make its own online ad unit more appealing to advertisers.

As consumers spend more of their day staring at smartphones and tablets and fewer minutes in front of TV screens, advertisers want to shift with them. The ballooning market for ads in apps is expected to propel spending on mobile ads this year past the amount spent on radio and printed ads and ever closer to TV’s sum, the research firm EMarketer said this month.

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