Twitter acquired the mobile advertising network MoPub in 2013. Twitter announced the deal in September 2013 and completed the acquisition in October, bringing MoPub’s mobile-publisher advertising technology into Twitter’s growing ad business.
MoPub helped app developers manage advertising inventory across mobile applications, including direct deals, ad networks, and real-time bidding. For Twitter, the acquisition offered a way to expand beyond ads shown inside its own service and strengthen its connections with the wider mobile-app ecosystem.
The deal is often remembered as a roughly $350 million stock transaction, although the acquisition announcement did not initially disclose complete financial terms. MoPub continued operating as part of Twitter’s advertising platform, and Twitter described the technology as useful for building real-time bidding into its ads business.
The date can cause confusion because several milestones occurred close together: the agreement was announced on September 9, 2013, the acquisition was completed on October 28, and Twitter’s annual reporting discussed it as an October 2013 acquisition. The canonical year is therefore 2013.