New York ad tech firm AppNexus has put some of its recent $100 million cash injection towards a deal for MediaGlu, a specialist provider of cross-device insights.

With months to go until a potential float on the stock exchange, AppNexus is looking to put itself in the best possible position for attracting a high share price. 

MediaGlu is set to be absorbed into the company’s ad trading platform with the hope of improving the current level of cross-device insights and attribution mapping on offer.

This could go some way towards boosting AppNexus’s slow but steady progress on mobile, which accounts for just over 15% of ad spend on the platform.

Investors gather round

Earlier this year, AppNexus was subject to a $1.2 billion valuation by the group of investors that committed around $100 million to help the company achieve its goals for expansion. 

Little was known about the parties involved, save for the rumours that one was a Boston public equity firm, but there is plenty for investors to be attracted by.

Before the recent funding round, AppNexus had raised over $200 million since its formation in 2007. The company increased its headcount by 43% between January 2013 and December 2014 alone, staffing its 20 offices with over 750 employees.   

Analysts believe AppNexus has the ability to compete with the likes of Facebook and Google in the ad-trading arena, proclaiming the company to be one of the biggest in ad tech despite its independent status. 

Building for the future

To prepare for brighter times, the company recently announced a staff shake-up which saw the instatement of CIO Igor Shindel as leader of four new departments for Publishers, Marketplaces, Programmatic Media Companies, Advertisers and Agencies.

Existing personnel in Ryan Christensen, Casey Birtwell and Andy Atherton took general manager positions in Publishers, Programmatic Media Companies and Marketplaces respectively, with the leader for agencies and advertisers expected to be announced soon.  

The shuffle caused only one departure of note – that of CTO Geir Magnusson, who made way as part of the company’s ongoing restructure.