AOL May Buy Mobile Advertising Firm Third Screen MediaAOL May Buy Mobile Advertising Firm Third Screen Media

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, AOL is in talks to buy mobile phone advertising provider Third Screen Media. Does that mean mobile advertising is about to take off?The rumored deal will be, according to the Journal, somewhere in the $80 million range. If the deal goes through Third Screen will likely become part of Advertising.com, AOL's online advertising network.

That's great, a possible M&A deal. So, will mobile marketing really take off or not? Some naysayers claim the market is not yet ready for mobile marketing. Others, however, claim that mobile marketing's time has come. Researcher The Shosteck Group last year predicted that the mobile advertising market could be worth as much as $9.6 billion by 2010.