Mobile analytics and advertising network company VoodooVox has been acquired by Call Genie. The cash-and-share deal is valued at $2.8 million.
Call Genie has raised a ton of venture capital from investors like Apax Partners, Softbank Capital, Steamboat Ventures (Disney), Berkshire Capital Investors and Village Ventures.
VoodooVox provides demographic information on phone calls and mobile ad traffic in real-time, enabling companies to gain insights into their call volume and mobile application activity. Call Genie, which is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, said it will use the acquisition to further expand its product offering, and delve further into the mobile advertising market, specifically strengthening its Pay Per Call advertising.
“The more pay per call advertisers know about their callers, the more success they’ll have with their campaigns,” commented Call Genie president and CEO, Michael Durance. “Our goal is to create a smarter mobile ad network, and VoodooVox gives us audience insights that benefit key stakeholders in the mobile advertising ecosystem.”
In other news, Call Genie said it intends to change the name of the company to VoodooVox, as it believes ‘Call Genie’ no longer reflects how its business has evolved since 2000. The name change will be brought to a vote at the company’s special meeting of shareholders later this month.
Call Genie is a provider of mobile local search and mobile digital interactive advertising, whose solutions are deployed in 12 countries worldwide. Its software allows telecom operators to search and access directory listing information.
Voodoovox had a strong focus on the Hispanic market as Hispanics are heavy pre-paid phone callers. However, pre-paid advertising does not seem to have really taken off.
In early 2010, Bob Perry, until then VP of Multicultural at Voodoovox, was appointed as new Senior Director Mobile Sales and Solutions at Mobile Posse in New York City. Both Voodoovox and Mobile Posse were (partially) backed venture capital investment company Softbank.
