The news agency cited three unnamed sources familiar with the matter the report said, adding that Teresi has had deep ties and has played diversified roles at a number of Silicon Valley technology companies, most recently Adobe Systems, where he was vice president and general manager of the company’s media solutions group.
An Apple spokesman declined to comment on Teresi’s hiring.
Teresi, appointed as the vice president of its iAd platform will report to Apple Senior VP-Internet Services Eddie Cue, who also oversees Apple’s iTunes and the App Store and replaces Andy Miller, who left for Boston-based Highland Capital last summer, filling a role in an area where the company has struggled, said two of the people, who declined to be identified because the move has not been officially announced. Teresi has apparently already assumed his duties at Apple.
Prior to that he also spent many years at Yahoo, and ultimately led its third-party publisher network, before joining Quantcast as chief revenue officer and PriceWaterhouseCoopers. Last spring, Teresi joined Adobe, which has been building up its own ad-technology business through acquisitions of Auditude and Efficient Frontier.
Industry experts have predicted that mobile-advertising platform would fetch in more than $1 billion in annual revenue for the first time in 2011, eMarketer reported in October. The research firm anticipated the market sector to generate $1.23 billion last year and $1.8 billion this year before topping $2 billion for the first time in 2013.
Taking this scenario at face value, Apple launched iAd soon after acquiring Quattro Wireless in 2010 for $274 million, at the Apple developers conference in April 2010, where co-founder and then-CEO Steve Jobs hyped the mobile-advertising unit as more attractive than older alternatives.
On the other hand, the iAd business has relentlessly attempted to parlay Apple’s leadership in consumer electronics into mobile-advertising revenue — with mixed results. While the system has attracted ads from companies such as Walt Disney Co., some marketers have complained that iAd costs more than other ad services and only works on Apple devices. Apple trails Google Inc. in the mobile advertising market, which may generate $4.4 billion by 2015, according to research firm eMarketer Inc.
“Charging premium prices and reaching only Apple devices is a much harder sell,” said Noah Elkin, an analyst at eMarketer. “That has been a huge obstacle.”
At first, the company asked advertisers to invest at least $1 million to run an iAd campaign and dozens of marketers tried it out, as the platform began on applications designed for the iPhone and iPod Touch, and was later expanded to work on the larger-screened iPad.
As it moves on, when Apple asked advertisers to renew, it has had to reduce pricing, especially in the face of lower-priced rivals at Google and Greystripe, which was acquired by ValueClick last spring. It also hired some agency experts including MEC’s Carrie Frolich to smooth relationships with brands and agencies.
As part of his new job, Teresi is a rare sales exec as he has spent long time in Silicon Valley, and his new assignment makes him the main liaison between Apple and Madison Avenue, the heart of the ad industry in New York.
Teresi fills the position left vacant by Andy, who departed Apple in August. Miller had joined the company as a vice president of mobile advertising following Apple’s acquisition of Quattro Wireless, of which he was co-founder and CEO.
Tom Neumayr, a spokesman for Cupertino, California-based Apple, declined to comment. Jodi Sorensen, a spokeswoman for Adobe, confirmed that Teresi is no longer at the company.