Snapchat has been making some intriguing moves into location measurement and now the company is revealing how much it paid to acquire data company Placed.
According to documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) today, the Venice, Calif.-based company snapped up Placed for $135.2 million in cash.
“The company was acquired to enhance advertising effectiveness,” read the filing. “We are currently in the process of valuing the assets acquired and liabilities assumed in the transaction.”
While Placed is run independently and has separate guidelines in place to protect its data and privacy, the two companies have already hinted at how they might work together to be an additional revenue opportunity outside of ads sold within Snapchat. STX Entertainment, for example, began a lengthy research project this summer to track how all of its media plays a role in driving ticket sales and will evaluate how digital ads compare to television and out-of-home.
Snap also confirmed that it purchased app Zenly in May, which allows consumers to see where their friends are on a map, for $213.3 million. Shortly after acquiring the French startup, Snap launched a feature called Snap Maps that allows Snapchatters to share their location within the app.
Two other undisclosed acquisitions were mentioned in the filing for $62.1 million, though a Snap spokesman declined to comment on the companies.
“In June 2017, we acquired a component of a business from a social advertising software company that was integrated with our existing advertising platform and adds advertising tools and creative solutions to our advertising customers,” read the filing. “In addition, in March 2017, we acquired all outstanding shares of a company that operates a cloud hosted platform for building content online.”
Meanwhile, acquisitions appear to be critical in Snap’s growth goals. The company reported its second-ever earnings on Thursday, saying that it made $181 million in the second quarter, an increase from $149.6 million during the first quarter that missed analysts’ expectations. The app’s daily active user growth was also slower than expected. With 173 million daily active users, Snap added 7 million users in the second quarter, down from 8 million in the first quarter.
