JumpTap searches
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WPP Group acquired a 2.5 percent stake in JumpTap, a Cambridge, Mass.-based mobile search technology and advertising firm, reports AdWeek - the latest in a series of buys and investments in new media. WPP's Group M has also just bought Dutch digital marketing firm Reddion BV, according to paidContent.

JumpTap provides search to wireless carriers such as Virgin Mobile and Alltell Wireless, along with a network that matches ad messages to queries via text links and banner ads. It allows carriers to offer their own branded search service rather than rely on the search heavyweights, and it competes with other white-label mobile search providers, like Medio Systems.

The investment won't get WPP a discount on advertising, but the two would collaborate on developing ways to target ads; moreover, WPP would gain a say on the future of advertising on the burgeoning third screen, and its clients would get a head start in mobile search.

WPP has also invested in Internet-based agency Spot Runner, online gaming ad network WildTangent and social-network builder LiveWorld. JumpTap closed a $22 million round of venture funding in October.