ExchangeWire rounds up some of the biggest stories in the European digital advertising space. In this week’s edition: Fyber earmarks capital for expansion; WPP hauls £596 in pre-tax profits; Adform and Adsquare team up; IAB supports HTML5 transition with new initiatives; and Annalect MENA and Ensighten announce an exclusive partnership.

€100m for Fyber's expansion in mobile advertising

Fyber may have been acquired by RNTS – but the German mobile ad tech company is set to continue operating independently under its own name; and a recent €100m capital-raising round will enable the company to expand further in the global mobile ad tech market.

The capital comes through a convertible bond, which acts like a company loan. Additional to the €100m of the bond, a further €50m can be raised by the company. Bond investors receive the option of converting the loan repayment into company shares.

"To establish an independent platform next to all of the owned-and-operated competing platforms, you need to have access to a large amount of capital", VentureBeat quotes Fyber co-founder Andreas Bodczek. "We are doubling-down on Fyber’s strategy of the last 18 months."

This includes expansion in terms of reach and scale, but also continued efforts for developing Fyber into a full-stack mobile SSP that allows developers to manage all their ad networks in the same place, including direct deals with ad networks.

WPP posts £596 pre-tax half-year result

Fluctuations in currency conversion may have hampered WWP's half-year results slightly, but profits are still looking good for the global advertising group. Headline profit before tax was at £596m, up 12.1% year-over-year.

The company reports a revenue growth of 6.8%, settling in at £5,839m for the first half of 2015. A year ago, WPP took in £5.47bn in revenue. In North America, the UK and APAC, WPP experienced particularly strong revenue growth, according to the Interim Results, particularly in terms of advertising and media investment management, as well as the sub-sectors direct, digital, and interactive and specialist communications.

Long-term, WPP is aiming for growth in revenue and net sales based on their "superior position in new markets and functional strength in new media". This may include particular emphasis on the Chinese market: While the recent dramatic price slides on the Chinese stock market and devaluation of the Renminbi alarmed investors, WPP-CEO Sir Martin Sorrell views the Chinese market with optimism and continues to be "bullish" about the Asian market.

Adform and Adsquare announce partnership

Mobile audience data platform Adsquare and ad tech provider Adform are partnering to offer premium mobile audiences via Adform's GO platform. Through the new partnership, Adsquare's data from mobile, online and offline sources, as well as audience templates will be accessible through Adform GO.

"We believe that our integration with Adsquare will help our clients to reap the real benefits of mobile and effectively reach their audiences at the right time and in the right context", says Adform CMO Martin Stockfleth Larsen. The partnership with Adsquare will make premium programmatic mobile audiences in the UK, Germany, and Italy available to Adform's client base.

"As advertisers shift from channel-thinking to a user-centric approach, partnering with key players such as Adform ensures advertisers have access to the valuable audience data they need", adds Adsquare CEO Tom Laband.

Both companies are aiming to supply a secure and privacy-friendly programmatic offering for brands.

IAB lends the transition to HTML5 a helping hand

With only 10% of all websites left using Flash for client side technology, IAB is preparing for the final switch over to HTML5. For those who need a last push, the nonprofit organisation has put several initiatives underway to transition into HTML5.

Amongst other support offers, new creative display guidelines suggest standardised HTML5 ad specs to publishers and advertisers, with a view to providing continuously developing technical specifications, which will enable ad tech providers to react faster to the development of ad technology.

Topics such as optimisation of assets, use of code libraries, clicktag implementation, common tools and platforms, animation and video and ad server compatibility are addressed in the revised HTML5 for 'Digital Advertising: Guide for Ad designers and Creative Technologists'.

Flex Ad standards will be revised on a continuous basis, enabling smoother adoption in smaller iterations. Likewise, dynamic ad standards are being developed for dynamic content optimisation.

A number of events and webinars complement the programme and provide opportunity for hands-on help on the journey to the age of HTML5.

Exclusive partnership between Annalect MENA and Ensighten

Omnicom's Middle-Eastern/North African data division Annalect is bumping up their data-management offerings through a new partnership. In cooperation with Ensighten, Annalect will make first-party data accessible to advertising clients.

"Ensighten's open marketing platform is changing the way brands collect, own and act on data generated across the customer journey in real time", explained Omnicom Media Group MENA CEO, Elie Khouri. "What was until now a disparate array of ad tech solutions will now work synergistically as one with Ensighten."

While clients personalise, manage and optimise their marketing efforts through the Ensighten Open Marketing Platform, Annalect's DMP powers efficiency and ROI of clients' brand campaigns.