Founded in 2006, GAO is a banner advertising agency working for publishers in the online video game industry. Using a self-service, auction-based system, GAO places in-game and banner advertising on leading gaming websites, utilising both cost-per-click and cost-per-acquisition business models. GAO provides access to 50 million unique users and delivers over 2 billion advertisement impressions per month through a diverse worldwide network of free-to-play MMORPG (massively multiplayer online game), casual, browser-based and mainstream gaming websites, as well as game community networking sites.
GAO's profitable business model will diversify UBM TechWeb's games industry revenue stream and extend its Game Group's business relationships to online game publishers and to consumer-oriented games websites.
GAO is expected to generate revenue of approximately $4m in the twelve months to March 2010.
Tony Uphoff, Chief Executive Officer of UBM TechWeb said: "GAO is an attractive and innovative online business that has a natural adjacency with UBM TechWeb's existing Game Developer Group portfolio. GAO provides us with both revenue growth potential and a new business model that will serve us well as we look to expand our business with online game publishers and with consumer-oriented online game websites."
About UBM
UBM says: “UBM focuses on two principal activities: worldwide information distribution, targeting and monitoring; and, the development and monetisation of B2B communities and markets. UBM's businesses inform markets and serve professional commercial communities - from doctors to game developers, from journalists to jewellery traders, from farmers to pharmacists – with integrated events, online, print and business information products. Our 6,400 staff in more than 30 countries are organised into specialist teams that serve these communities, bringing buyers and sellers together, helping them to do business and their markets to work effectively and efficiently.”
About UBM TechWeb
UBM says: “UBM TechWeb, the global leader in technology media and professional information, enables people and organizations to harness the transformative power of technology. Through its core businesses – media solutions, marketing services and professional information – UBM TechWeb produces the most respected and consumed brands, applications and services in the technology market. More than 14.5 million business and technology professionals (CIOs, IT and IT Support managers, Web & Digital professionals, Software and Game developers, Government decision makers, and Telecom providers) actively participate in UBM TechWeb's communities. UBM TechWeb brands include: global face-to-face events such as Interop, Game Developers Conference (GDC), Web 2.0, Black Hat and VoiceCon; large-scale online networks such as InformationWeek, Light Reading and Gamasutra; research, training, and certification services, including HDI, Pyramid Research, and InformationWeek Analytics; and market-leading magazines such as InformationWeek and Wall Street & Technology.”
