Tremor International looks to boost video advertising with News Corp deal

(Reuters) - Marketing firm Tremor International Ltd said on Monday it has agreed to buy video advertising firm Unruly from News Corp, looking to bolster video services by tapping into the Rupert Murdoch-owned firm's vast network of clients.

The London-listed firm said as part of the deal, it would issue about 6.91% of its voting share capital to News Corp, the owner of the Wall Street Journal and The Times.

As more people switch to online services, ad dollars are also moving to digital platforms like Facebook and Google, making video advertising a lucrative market.

News Corp will be subject to a lock-up period of 18 months and both parties have agreed to spending 30 million pounds ($39.25 million) in ads over three years.

Unruly, founded in 2006 and based in London, has over 1.2 billion unique monthly views on its ads. It also has a data analytics unit that studies trends focused on advertisements' emotional impact.

Excluding deal costs, Israel-based Tremor expects Unruly to break even this financial year.

News Corp bought Unruly in 2015 for 58 million pounds in cash.

Shares of AIM-listed Tremor rose more than 4% in morning trade.

($1 = 0.7644 pounds)

(Reporting by Pushkala Aripaka in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Uttaresh.V)