Rebekah Brooks has finalised her first major deal since returning to News UK as chief executive with the purchase of London-based social video advertising platform Unruly.
The deal is worth more than £100m and follows Brooks' to the company at the start of this month after her departure four year's ago in the wake of the hacking scandal.
Unruly's products include:
- ShareRank, described as a "proprietary technology that is able to predict the virality of videos across social and digital media"
- In-Feed advertising, described as "a mobile-first, video ad format that dynamically adapts to the unique look and feel of news feed formats"
- In-Page advertising, "video advertising that appears as video player units within the body of article pages, across desktop and mobile".
- Skippable In-Stream Advertising, "offering programmatic targeting and prominent branding within the player".
Brooks said in an email to staff: "I am thrilled to tell you about a very exciting adventure we have embarked upon today through the News rp purchase of Unruly.
"As you have heard, Unruly are a home-grown mould-breaking business up the road in the heart of London's tech centre in Shoreditch. They have revolutionised digital and social video advertising around the globe.
"We have always been pioneers in our field, so combining our world-class journalistic heritage with their cutting-edge technology and videology expertise will help accelerate our growth in this digital age.
"Our titles have formidable reach and resonance, and research shows that our readers are intensely engaged with them. Unruly will help our advertisers deepen their relationship and help us to harness the immense opportunities in digital advertising to continue to fund the investment needed to secure a great future.
"The leadership at Unruly – particularly co-founders Sarah, Scott and Matt – are truly inspiring, and I believe the adventure and spirit of this Shoreditch start-up can infuse us with new energy and enthusiasm. They'll be reporting to me and working with many of us at News UK and all News Corp businesses around the world. We can learn a great deal from all of the 200 Unrulies around the world – interesting and promising times lie ahead."
News Corp has paid £58m for Unruly, with a further £56m payable depending on performance.
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