mrge strengthens competitive position with first North American acquisition and addition of programmatic tech

SourceKnowledge, the open web, cost-per-click (CPC) ad network that increases yield for publishers and incremental reach for retailers, announced it has been acquired by mrge, the leading global platform for commerce advertising. mrge is backed by Waterland Private Equity, founded in 1999 and valued at € 14 billion.

The deal expands the global reach of mrge in North America with SourceKnowledge’s roster of direct advertisers and thousands of publishers and brings SourceKnowledge’s programmatic technology to mrge’s existing retailer and publisher clients. SourceKnowledge will operate as a member of mrge which includes: digidip, shopping24, and Yieldkit.

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According to McKinsey, commerce media has the potential to generate over $1.3 trillion of enterprise value in the United States.

Patrick Hopf, President of SourceKnowledge said, “mrge and Waterland are clearly the right partners to help SourceKnowledge continue to grow our platform by making it easy for retailers and publishers to connect on the open web. They are committed to long-term growth strategies and supporting our team with the resources to advance our products on an international scale – both organically and through acquisitions. We are incredibly proud of the growth that we’ve achieved on our own to date and excited to accelerate that as part of mrge.”

The SourceKnowledge ad network has gained significant traffic with brands like Wine.com, Chewy, Michael Kors, Macy’s, Womanizer and more as well as leading publishers attracted to its premium cost-per-click (CPC) model. In 2022, the company was included on Deloitte’s 2022 Technology Fast 500™ and was shortlisted for ExchangeWire’s The Wires for Best Ecommerce Customer Acquisition Strategy.

SourceKnowledge makes it seamless for advertisers to gain high-converting traffic at scale on the open web and retail brands can easily add micro-influencers to their media mix through the platform.

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For publishers, SourceKnowledge offers its SmartBidder™ technology, which detects and rewards traffic that converts automatically and in real-time as well as a Fallback URL, where SourceKnowledge will send the inventory to another network if it cannot meet the bidfloor. In addition, the SourceKnowledge programmatic technology allows its publishers to sell their inventory through an auction in the marketplace. These technologies were developed to put control back into the hands of publishers to monetize their own traffic at their discretion, thereby supporting the open web.

Michael von Stern, CFO of mrge, said, “Backed by Waterland Private Equity we focus on a buy and build strategy with the goal of achieving market leadership through strategic acquisitions and accelerating organic growth through synergies. SourceKnowledge is a natural fit as it offers a unique product suite and commitment to maximizing the open web – earning it a strong-hold on the North American market. Given SourceKnowledge’s publisher-first mindset and goal-based offerings for advertisers, there are clear synergies with our other entities and goals for global expansion. We are thrilled to welcome SourceKnowledge to our team and look forward to growing together.”