Twitter's offloading ad platform MoPub to AppLovin for $1.05 billion

Twitter (Image credit: iMore)

What you need to know

Twitter has announced a deal to sell MoPub to AppLovin for more than $1 billion.
Twitter bought MoPub in 2013 for $350 million.

Twitter has agreed to sell its mobile ad platform MoPub to marketing software maker AppLovin for a cool $1.05 billion, the company announced.

According to a TechCrunch report, MoPub raked in around $188 million in revenue last year with Twitter having previously set a goal of doubling that number by 2023. Now, it's handing the keys over to someone else.

"This transaction increases our focus and demonstrates confidence in our revenue product roadmap, accelerating our ability to invest in the core products that position Twitter for long-term growth and best serve the public conversation," Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said in a press release.

Ned Segal, Twitter CFO, went on to note that the move will allow Twitter to focus on the potential for ads across the Twitter estate

The sale of MoPub positions us to concentrate more of our efforts on the massive potential for ads on our website and in our apps. We plan to accelerate product development and replenish the near term revenue loss, with the goal of improving our time to market to deliver on our previously stated goal of at least doubling total annual revenue from $3.7 billion in 2020 to $7.5 billion or more in 2023.

While the deal isn't yet closed, AppLovin says that we can expect to hear from it in the future as it works to ensure MoPub's customers "have a seamless experience" throughout the transition.

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.