Sensor Tower Buys Rival Data.ai

Data.ai is now part of the US market research company Sensor Tower. The acquisition also changes the data partner of many European industry associations, including game.

In a surprising move, Sensor Tower has announced the acquisition of competitor data.ai. Financial details of the deal, which will influence business intelligence in the app industry, were not disclosed. Sensor Tower's official blog post announcing the acquisition speaks of "a new and exciting chapter" (Oliver Yeh, CEO of Sensor Tower) and "the best path to innovation" (Ted Krantz, CEO of data.ai).

There is no mention of possible job cuts in the consolidation of services, which the US site TechCrunch has learnt about. Such consolidation is not uncommon when companies that are at least partly in competition are acquired.

The acquisition also has implications for the games industry. Both Sensor Tower and data.ai, known as AppAnnie until 2022, have published regular analysis, particularly on the mobile games segment. They will certainly continue to do so. However, the acquisition will also mean a change of partner for some European games industry associations.

For example, the German games industry association Game relies on data.ai to compile its annual mobile games statistics. The reports of the French and Italian associations also mention data.ai as a source, but not Sensor Tower. Sensor Tower is therefore right to say that the acquisition will expand both the range of mobile marketing and app intelligence services and the customer base.