Kirby Winfield of AdXpose

Seattle startup AdXpose, which has had more lives than a cat since it was founded in 2005, is getting ready for a new one. The company, formerly known as Mpire and WidgetBucks, has agreed to be sold to comScore for $22 million.

AdXpose is an ad verification and optimization technology which helps online advertisers make sure that their ad dollars are being spent wisely. Among other things, the technology helps clients determine if their advertisements are showing up in the appropriate spots. It also determines whether ad impressions are being wasted.

Kirby Winfield, CEO of AdXpose, declined to comment when contacted by GeekWire and directed questions to comScore. The company raised a $3 million venture round in April, which followed a $10 million round in 2008. Backers of the company include Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Ignition Partners. At the time of the most recent financing, it employed 23 people.

There’s been some consolidation in that space recently, with Bellevue’s Adometry selling to Click Forensics of Austin, Texas earlier this year.

And the deal is not the first acquisition for ComScore in the Seattle area. In 2008, it paid $44 million for mobile phone measurement startup M:Metrics.

UPDATE: Winfield provided a little more color on the sale in a follow-up email, noting that the company’s employees (all of whom are joining comScore) are “psyched about the bigger canvas they get to paint on.” One big advantage of the deal, he said, will be to leverage comScore’s vast network of sales professionals.

“We built AdXpose to its current leadership position with only three sales people, on the back of our tech advantage,” he said.  “When we go up head to head against the competition, we win – but with three sales people, you just cannot get in front of enough prospects. With comScore we have access to immense sales and operational scale to serve the needs of the marketplace more effectively.”

Here’s the full press release on the deal:

comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today announced a definitive agreement to acquire AdXpose®, the market-leading verification and optimization company, for total consideration of $22 million in a primarily stock-based transaction. Headquartered in Seattle with offices in New York, AdXpose provides advertisers and publishers with greater transparency and confidence in the quality, safety, and performance of their digital advertising campaigns by allowing them to verify and optimize billions of campaign data points captured in real-time. The actionable optimization metrics captured by AdXpose solutions help its customers realize increased ROI, more profitable margins, and measurable ad effectiveness.

(Logo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20080115/COMSCORELOGO)

“We are excited to welcome the AdXpose team to comScore,” said Dr. Magid Abraham, comScore President & CEO. “In just a few short years, AdXpose has demonstrated clear technology leadership with their leading ad verification and optimization analytics solutions, which are highly complementary to comScore’s existing ad effectiveness product suite. Through the integration of these capabilities, comScore will be able to further its mission to develop the most comprehensive end-to-end suite of digital advertising analytics. With audience-buying becoming increasingly prevalent in digital media planning today, there is a growing demand for analytical tools that enable greater transparency and accountability in ad delivery. The AdXpose technology will enable comScore to bring this important dimension of advertising effectiveness to its clients.”

“The AdXpose team is thrilled to join comScore to help take our ad verification and optimization solutions to the next level,” saidKirby Winfield, AdXpose President & CEO. “comScore is at the center of the digital media planning universe, and in our view this business combination represents the most effective way to introduce our capabilities to a much broader footprint of advertisers and agencies. In addition, the ability to leverage comScore’s existing ad effectiveness capabilities will allow us to bring new value to the campaign planning and verification process.”

comScore expects the transaction to close in approximately two weeks, subject to customary closing conditions, and does not anticipate a meaningful impact on revenue in 2011.

For more information, please visit the comScore Voices blog: http://www.comscore.com/AdXpose.

About AdXpose

AdXpose® is the leader in digital advertising analytics solutions. The company’s SaaS technology provides advertisers and publishers with greater transparency and confidence in the quality, safety, and performance of their digital advertising campaigns. The actionable optimization metrics captured by AdXpose® solutions help its customers realize increased ROI, more profitable margins, and measurable ad effectiveness. AdXpose® is headquartered in Seattle, WA, with offices in New York City, and is backed by Draper Fischer Jurvetson and Ignition Partners.

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