Google Seals AdMob Deal to Sell Mobile Ads on Android Smartphones

Google May 27 closed its purchase of mobile advertising network AdMob, setting up a battle with Apple for digital ads served in applications on smartphones. The search engine will commence integrating its AdSense for mobile programs with AdMob's mobile ad software. Google also gains the AdMob team, whose expertise made Apple come calling with an offer of $600 million before Google swooped in with a sweeter $750 million deal. Most attractive to Google is AdMob's leading position in in-application ads, those ads sitting in applications users purchase and download from stores such as Apple's iPhone App Store and Google's own Android Market. AdMob has created a number of ad units for iPhone and Android applications, including interactive video ad units and expandable rich media ads.