Twitter just sold its mobile ad business for more than a billion dollars

A man in a business suit holding the Twitter logo
(Image credit: Shutterstock/Tero Vesalainen)

Twitter has officially completed the sale of its mobile ads platform MoPub to AppLovin, netting the company a cool $1.05 billion.

MoPub helped Twitter generate around $190 million in revenue during 2020, but the company felt that having the platform was impacting its ability to execute in other areas, such as catering to SMBs and e-commerce, both of which are areas of strength for Meta (formerly Facebook). 

The deal was originally announced in October 2021.

Out with the old

"With the sale of MoPub completed, we continue to concentrate our efforts on enhancing ads across our platform," Twitter GM of Revenue Products Bruce Falck said. "Our goal is to deliver faster growth in key areas and accelerate our product development." 

At the time of the deal, AppLovin said that MoPub was being used by 45,000 apps to monetize, reaching 1.5 billion addressable users around the world. 

"Developers benefit from more features to help drive higher monetization opportunities and streamline workflows, leading to increased revenue for their businesses. We believe the power of this unified platform will be unparalleled in today’s market,” said AppLovin CEO Adam Foroughi. 

“We are excited to execute on this strategic acquisition with our sights set on operating the largest and most robust in-app advertising platform that enhances the growth of the broader mobile app ecosystem.”

According to Twitter, many MoPub features will sunset on March 31, 2022, although the MoPub Dashboard and Reporting will remain live until April 8, 2022. 

While Twitter has outsized influence, its finances are generally much weaker than its rivals, leading to an ambitious plan to double revenues to $7.5 billion per year (or more) by 2023. 

Max Slater-Robins has been writing about technology for nearly a decade at various outlets, covering the rise of the technology giants, trends in enterprise and SaaS companies, and much more besides. Originally from Suffolk, he currently lives in London and likes a good night out and walks in the countryside.