• by Tobi Elkin  @tobielkin, February 11, 2016

Time Inc. will acquire the assets of Viant Technology Inc., a firm that describes itself as a people-based advertising technology company. Viant owns several ad-tech and media companies including Specific Media, Vindico, Myspace and Xumo.

The deal price was not mentioned, but Viant said it favored the acquisition so that it would be able to combine premium content, subscriber and visitor data and advertising inventory with its first-party data and targeting capabilities.

Time Inc. said Viant would enable it to target ad delivery, link devices to real people and convert ad spending into actual sales.

“This acquisition is game-changing for us,” stated Time Inc. CEO Joe Ripp. “Marketers are selecting media partners that have either data-driven capabilities or premium content; we will be able to deliver both in a single platform... In other words, we will be able to deliver advertisers’ messages targeted to optimal audiences across all types of devices, along with the ability to measure ROI.”

On Wednesday, Time Inc. reported that digital ad revenues increased $15 million or 17% in the fourth quarter of 2015 year-over-year, due largely to growth in video, programmatic and mobile sales, and a focus on new content verticals.

Time Inc.’s overall revenue fell slightly as print ad revenue declined $27 million, or 7% in Q4. Circulation revenue also fell $10 million or 3% due to poor newsstand sales.

The company served 119 million multiplatform unique visitors during December 2015 in the U.S., up 22% since December 2014.