digital advertising

In what marks a positive sign in a struggling economy, AdMob on Wednesday announced it has achieved positive cash flow and secured a $15.7 million Series C investment fund.

Led by Sequoia Capital's Growth Fund -- with existing investor Accel Partners also participating -- AdMob intends to use the cash infusion to expand its market position in mobile advertising. The company has posted strong year-over-year growth. In fact, the mobile-advertising platform more than tripled the number of ads served on a monthly basis to 4.5 billion in September.

Microsoft's aggressive campaign to increase its position in digital advertising took another step this week as it announced the acquisition of Navic Networks, a television advertising provider. Terms were not disclosed.

The deal, announced Tuesday, will give the software giant ownership of Navic's sophisticated campaign-management tools for digital advertising. Those tools optimize where and when interactive television ads are placed. One tool, called Admira, offers a unified ad network so that selected audiences can be targeted across all ads in a campaign.