Facebook Acquires Online Video Firm LiveRail to Improve Video Ads

For the last year, Facebook has been endlessly talking about its video ads. While there has been some speculation when this will be released and how users will react, Facebook is making it clear that that pursuit looks promising. As of yesterday, Facebook has agreed to acquire video tech startup LiveRail. According to TechCrunch, Facebook paid a hefty amount: between $400 million to $500 million.

LiveRail, founded in 2007, helps big name marketers and publishers such as Major League Baseball, ABC Family, and others to optimize and deliver video ads to mobile and web using real-time bidding and marketing analytics. Every month, LiveReal delivers a reported 7 billion video ads.

“We believe that LiveRail, Facebook and the premium publishers it serves have an opportunity to make video ads better and more relevant to hundreds of millions of people who watch digital video every month,” Brian Boland, VP of ads product marketing at Facebook, said in a statement.

According to LiveRail’s CEO and cofounder Mark Trefgarne, the feeling is mutual.

“We realized that by joining forces we’d be able to draw upon our respective strengths to move even faster towards our shared vision of creating the advertising platform of the future.”