Amobee raises equity capital from Motorola and Cisco - what type of strategy is this?

Yikes – is it me or is Amobee like the tart of the mobile advertising space?  I don’t want to sound rude so maybe I should make that pimp or something. But, first  Vodafone (Richard Saggers comments here) and then Telefonica and now Motorola and Cisco.

What on earth.  Is this a normal strategy to get equity from brands in the same space. Is Amobee doing something incredibly unique or incredibly stupid? 

I mean. Since Telefonica and Vodafone have invested – business for Amobee has been great. So that is a positive.  But it already has investors such as Accel and Sequoia that have a very good name in the business.  Then why Motorola and Cisco?

It can’t be for educational purposes (for the infrastructure and device players)– it must be for in house use of services and growth.
I suppose this is a win win strategy for Amobee – it wants to get brands on board and offering equity for getting involved or using it could win it exclusivity for that player.

From the press release
“Amobee is establishing a mobile advertising ecosystem to better serve operators,” said Zohar Levkovitz, CEO of Amobee Media Systems. “By engaging with Cisco, one of the most deployed vendors of operator solutions globally, and Motorola, a leading handset manufacturer worldwide, Amobee is creating the most complete mobile advertising solution enabling operators to deploy the most effective advertising offerings for their market.”

The Amobee media system establishes a new revenue stream for mobile operators who can offer their ad-enabled inventory to agencies and advertisers seeking to buy, deploy, and monitor campaigns across all mobile channels. The Amobee system also ensures that mobile customers are getting the most relevant advertising experience.
 
“Advertising is about to open on billions of mobile screens around the world and Amobee Media Systems has made this possible. With Amobee, today’s mobile operators can become tomorrow’s media companies — offering a rich diet of information, entertainment and amusement to consumers everywhere,” said Mike Moritz, Partner at Sequoia Capital.

“Fifteen years ago — before companies like Yahoo! and Google — there was barely any advertising or commerce on the Internet. Today, the same is true on mobile. Thanks to Amobee, that is about to change.”

Additionally, Amobee announced that mobile industry veteran Gary Schofield has joined the executive team as President and Chief Operating Officer.

What we think?
I have to admit, I am toying with the idea that this is stupid to give equity to brands to single or count out the competition in the same market. But then again it could be pure genius?

I like Amobee, I think CMO Patrick Parodi is great – so I hope that this is genius – but only time will tell.

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5. Amobee partners with QuickPlay and DaDa to provide Vodafone Italia with ad-funded mobile video content