Rakuten Linkshare aims to bolster its cross-channel portfolio with its intention to purchase retargeting company Mediaforge for an as yet undisclosed sum, with the deal set to be finalised by the close of 2012.

Both companies have entered into a definitive agreement for 50-man Mediaforge to be acquired by Rakuten-owned Linkshare with the performance marketing group claiming the purchase will shore-up its credentials in the display advertising sector.

Scott Allan, senior VP of marketing at Rakuten Linkshare, told new media age the planned investment in Mediaforge would complement its existing affiliate marketing and search marketing activity, which is mostly confined to its US operations.

“We want to have bigger and broader conversations [about cross-channel marketing],” he said. “This investment will help advertisers see how their ads are optimised across different channels.”

An FAQ document issued by Rakuten Linkshare claims that Mediaforge’s “consumer engagement display advertising model is unique in the industry” that “delivers 13 times the number of conversions than clicks alone.”

Tony Zitto, CEO of Mediaforge, added that a combined entity would enable “advertisers to see how their marketing dollars are working cross-channel” and that Rakuten’s scale, the Japanese outfit owns multiple ecommerce businesses, such as Play.com in the UK, would aid its global expansion ambitions.

Zitto also said that the aligned operation would help the pair’s clients optimise their budgets, in some cases they have mutual clients, by seeing where their online spend overlaps.

“No matter which performance retargeting company advertisers work with, they are likely already paying commission to multiple vendors.  One benefit of this acquisition is that it represents a big step towards eliminating overlap across performance–based channels,” read a statement outlining the agreement.

Currently there are no plans to rebrand Mediaforge as Rakuten Linkshare with Allan discussing the possibility of a “family of sub-brands” although nothing is definite at present.

Separately, rival performance network Affiliate Window has released data suggesting that traffic generated by tablet devices significantly augmented effective, with nearly one-in-ten (9.35%) sales coming via mobile.

The statistics taken from sales made via its network revealed that 13.35% of total traffic came via mobile devices and that this figure was8.01% if tablet traffic was stripped out total mobile traffic is converting at 3.14% as of last month.