LinkedIn to Buy Targeting Specialist Drawbridge

In the US, professional networking site LinkedIn is to acquire San Francisco-based Drawbridge, which uses large-scale AI and machine learning technologies combined with advanced graph theory to build identity solutions. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Drawbridge, which was founded by Kamakshi Sivaramakrishnan (pictured) in 2010, provides technology which can be used to help businesses identify when a single person is using multiple devices, drawing insights from user behavior across devices to enable advertisers and marketers to target mobile audiences. Last week, DVR and TV tech and audience insights provider TiVo expanded its TV Viewership Data product to include Drawbridge's Identity Graph and demographic attributes, along with Kantar ad occurrences data. The Identity Graph enables clients to link viewer data with associated mobile ad identifiers across pay-TV, OTT, and digital platforms.

Microsoft-owned LinkedIn said in a blog post that it will integrate Drawbridge into its own ad and marketing tools division LinkedIn Marketing Solutions, in order to further help its customers reach and understand their target audiences. 'We believe Drawbridge's team and technology will allow us to accelerate the capabilities of our Marketing Solutions platform, helping our customers better reach and understand their professional audiences and measure the ROI of their campaigns across mobile and desktop,' LinkedIn added.

Web sites: www.linkedin.com and www.drawbridge.com .