Dubai tech start-up Media.net acquired for $900m

Media.net, a Dubai-based advertising technology start-up, has been acquired for about US$900 million by a group of Chinese investors.

The deal would represent the third-largest in the ad tech industry, after Alphabet unit Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick and Microsoft’s deal for aQuantive.

“We got an incredible amount of interest just because ad tech is a large and growing space and, at the same time, the number of companies that have been successful in it have been limited,” said founder Divyank Turakhia.

The company’s products, which are licensed by various publishers and ad networks, auto-learn and display the most relevant ads to users.

Media.net, a Yahoo ad partner, attracted seven bidders, including a publicly listed company based in the United States.

However, the bid fell through following a substantial decrease in the company’s stock value, Mr Turakhia said.

The deal gives Media.net access to the Chinese online advertising market, which is currently the second largest in the world, he added.

Digital ad spend in China is expected to reach $40.42 billion this year, a 30 per cent jump from a year earlier, according to research firm eMarketer.

Media.net gets 90 per cent of its revenue from the US.

The company posted revenue of $232m in 2015, with more than half of that coming from mobile users.

The Chinese consortium will buy Media.net from Mr Turakhia’s Starbuster TMT Investments and has already made a payment of $426m.

The group is led by Zhang Zhiyong, the chairman of telecom firm Beijing Miteno Communication Technology.

Miteno’s shares have been halted since December.

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NO OTHER LAND

Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal

Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham

Rating: 3.5/5

US PGA Championship in numbers

1 Joost Luiten produced a memorable hole in one at the par-three fourth in the first round.

2 To date, the only two players to win the PGA Championship after winning the week before are Rory McIlroy (2014 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational) and Tiger Woods (2007, WGC-Bridgestone Invitational). Hideki Matsuyama or Chris Stroud could have made it three.

3 Number of seasons without a major for McIlroy, who finished in a tie for 22nd.

4 Louis Oosthuizen has now finished second in all four of the game's major championships.

5 In the fifth hole of the final round, McIlroy holed his longest putt of the week - from 16ft 8in - for birdie.

6 For the sixth successive year, play was disrupted by bad weather with a delay of one hour and 43 minutes on Friday.

7 Seven under par (64) was the best round of the week, shot by Matsuyama and Francesco Molinari on Day 2.

8 Number of shots taken by Jason Day on the 18th hole in round three after a risky recovery shot backfired.

9 Jon Rahm's age in months the last time Phil Mickelson missed the cut in the US PGA, in 1995.

10 Jimmy Walker's opening round as defending champion was a 10-over-par 81.

11 The par-four 11th coincidentally ranked as the 11th hardest hole overall with a scoring average of 4.192.

12 Paul Casey was a combined 12 under par for his first round in this year's majors.

13 The average world ranking of the last 13 PGA winners before this week was 25. Kevin Kisner began the week ranked 25th.

14 The world ranking of Justin Thomas before his victory.

15 Of the top 15 players after 54 holes, only Oosthuizen had previously won a major.

16 The par-four 16th marks the start of Quail Hollow's so-called "Green Mile" of finishing holes, some of the toughest in golf.

17 The first round scoring average of the last 17 major champions was 67.2. Kisner and Thorbjorn Olesen shot 67 on day one at Quail Hollow.

18 For the first time in 18 majors, the eventual winner was over par after round one (Thomas shot 73).

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Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
Premier League-standard football pitch
400m Olympic running track
NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
600-seat auditorium
Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
Specialist robotics and science laboratories
AR and VR-enabled learning centres
Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills