High-impact ads may be Perion CEO's best bet to save company

New York

YOU'RE scrolling through news on your smartphone and suddenly an animated chainsaw slices the screen image in two, revealing a red Ford F-150 serenaded by hard-charging guitar rock.

In the world of online publishing, this is what's called "high-impact advertising", and Josef Mandelbaum, CEO of Perion Networks, is betting it can save his company. Mr Mandelbaum said last week he would pay US$180 million in cash to buy Undertone, the maker of the chainsaw ad. Perion, whose core business enables developers to make money from free software by packaging it with search engines, climbed 23 per cent in the stock market last week, trimming its loss this year to 36 per cent.