ExchangeWire rounds up some of the biggest stories in the European digital advertising space.

Another Week Of Consolidation In Ad Tech
This week saw Singtel continue its acquisition in the ad tech sector with the dual purchase of Adconion and Kontera for $150m and $225m respectively, followed by the news of Undertone acquiring Upfront Digital Media (formerly Legolas Media) for an undisclosed fee.

Singapore-based Singtel made the announcement this week that its mobile specialist arm Amobee (itself acquired for $300m-plus just 18 months ago) was to fork out $359m for its new acquisitions in a move that will see it pivot to become a full-service outfit.

The Adconion deal is understood to be the North American and APAC businesses only. The European part of Adconion will not be included, and is likely to be spun out as a new company.

The logic behind the purchase is not clear. Kontera is an in-text and in-image ad network. You could argue that Amobee could bring this capability to their mobile stack play (Amobee, GradientX).

Meanwhile, the logic behind the purchase is not clear. Kontera is an in-text and in-image ad network. You could argue that Amobee could bring this capability to their mobile stack play (Amobee, GradientX).

However, speaking at a mobile-specialist event, hosted by Digitas LBi, David Barker, Amobee, managing director, EMEA, explained his theory that within about 3 years advertisers will want such outfits to be full-service, not just mobile specialists.

“Mobile is a key part now, but moving forward, it will just be part of everything else,” he told attendees.

Separately, Undertone’s purchase of brand-focused programmatic platform Upfront Digital Media grants it the ability to execute cross-screen programmatic direct and private exchange services to advertisers through managed and self-serve consoles.

Tel Aviv-based Upfront’s addition to the platform now means that Undertone can offer a range of self-service and managed programmatic solutions to trading desks, agencies and marketers, according to the firms.

This latest round builds on earlier purchases in the sector this year, including AppNexus’ purchase of Alenty, Twitter’s purchase of Namo Media, Xaxis’ purchase of BannerConnect, Opera Mediaworks’ purchase of Apprupt, not to mention Sociomantic’s sale to Tesco-owned Dunhumby for a reputed $200m.

AppNexus’ Brian O’Kelley Talks Up Global Ad Tech Leadership Group
This week ExchangeWire published a two-part interview with AppNexus co-founder and CEO Brian O’Kelley where he explained some of the company’s recent product launches but more interestingly posed the prospect of an global based trade body to resolve some of the crucial issues in ad tech.

In the candid interview, O’Kelley lauded the efforts of existing outfits, namely the multiple IAB franchises, but raised the point that these bodies are there primarily to represent the interests of publishers (as is their right). But O’Kelley – widely regarded as one of the dons of ad tech –proposed the idea of a similar body to champion the needs of ad tech.

“The IABs are generally run for the publishers, who may have different needs to the advertisers and agencies. Plus there is no global standards body for ad tech, and that’s something we’ve thought about.

“It makes sense to say: ‘Should there be an IAB for ad tech that cares about and supports the needs for all the various technology companies, and data companies and programmatic media companies?’,” he said.

“We’ve actually been looking at it informally with many of the other big ad tech companies in the US.”

European Tech Scene Offered Fresh Hope With Half Billion Fund
This publication has always taken the mantle of championing the European ad tech sector, and this week that cause was offered fresh purpose with the news that London-based partners at Index Ventures is to launch its latest fund, adding a further £328m ($550m) to expand its investments in technology start-ups across the UK and Europe.

The fund – known as ‘7 Index’ – will go towards supporting start-ups concentrating on big data cloud, and financial services, as well as marketplaces, with investment rounds expected to range from anywhere between $100,000 and £15m.

The move also heralds increased interest in the European tech scene, which has long been considered a poor relation to the USA, with Index's London investments representing revenues of $2.3bn for 2013, according to reports, with existing investments include Just Eat, ad tech firm Criteo, as well as online gambling giant King.

Instagram Ads Make UK Debut
Facebook announced it is to roll out its advertising services to the UK, Canada and Australia after earlier trials in the US for its Instagram service this week, as well as unveiling its first VP of messaging services.

Instagram first announced its intentions to introduce advertising services 18 months ago post its sale to publicly listed Facebook much to the chagrin of many users, which then prompted a very public back-track from founder Kevin Systrom.

The roll out follows earlier test in the US, and the exact nature of the terms for advertisers remains unclear, but research firm eMarketer estimates that there were 34.9 million Instagram users in the US in 2013, showing the clear majority of Instagram's audience outside the US.

Xaxis announces Turbine
Group M has announced the launch of Turbine, a proprietary new data management platform (DMP) which it claims will bring “unprecedented accuracy and performance to global advertisers’ digital campaigns”.

The outfit claims that its new DMP creates proprietary and anonymous audience segments in real-time then actions these segments across premium inventory across screens.