AOL has announced some good news for its publishers and advertisers in the form of a new $90 million acquisition of Gravity, a Santa Monica, Calif.-based content optimization and personalization startup.
According to ZDNet, AOL had to shell out $83 million in cash upfront and throw an additional $7.7 million on top of that, to be deferred over the next two years. What will Gravity bring to AOL's table? The company reportedly offers interest graphs that are based on users' interests, preferences and habit. These will be deployed on content websites like The Huffington Post and TechCrunch that will offer what it is calling "a more tailored and relevant selection of editorial and advertising content" to readers.
Founded in 2009 by Amit Kapur, Jim Benedetto and Steve Pearman, formerly top executives at MySpace - Gravity has roughly 40 employees and had raised $20.6 million in funding.
"The web is moving to the era of personal, and a personal web filter will reshape how consumers get information and services," AOL CEO Tim Armstrong said in a statement announcing the deal. "Gravity is joining AOL to lead the personalization transformation of AOL's brands and platform partners."
The acquisition of Gravity will likely give AOL some extra horsepower in the race among other social networking sites and online content creators and publishers to turn users data and habits into something targeted and tangible that the company can use to generate revenue in some way or another, assuming the company wielding the technology uses it properly.
AOL has said that Gravity's technology will be immediately put to use in "all areas" of the company's strategy to create more engaging experiences for its consumers, advertisers and publishing partners.
"It's time to move beyond searching for the best content to having the best content search for you," Kapur said in a statement. "We believe that by combining AOL's vast brand, publisher and advertiser network with Gravity's interest graph technology, we can do just that."
