Facebook announces a deal to buy online video advertising technology company LiveRail

Facebook on Wednesday announced a deal to buy online video advertising technology company LiveRail.

The companies did not disclose how much Facebook is paying for seven-year-old LiveRail.

"What LiveRail ultimately offers is a complete advertising solution for video publishers," Facebook vice president of ads product marketing Brian Boland said in a blog post.

"We believe that LiveRail, Facebook and the premium publishers it serves have an opportunity to make better and more relevant for the hundreds of millions of people who watch digital video every month."

LiveRail's roster of customers includes ABC, Dailymotion, A&E Networks, and Major League Baseball website MLB.com.

San Francisco-based LiveRail touts itself as the world's largest programmatic platform for effectively targeting video ads to online viewers.

The company has 170 employees and delivers more than seven billion video ads each month for hundreds of customers.

"Our goal at LiveRail has been to build the best technology in the world to help connect the advertising ecosystem," the company said in an online post.