PHOENIX — Rocket Fuel’s acquisition of data management platform X+1 was one of the more talked-about M&A deals in 2014. So why did the programmatic platform do the deal?

To give customers a single, constantly-connected platform, says Rocket Fuel’s global partnerships VP David Skinner.

“The rationale for the acquisition was that Rocket Fuel really sees the digital landscape changing to one of a digital marketing hub, where advertisers more and more are looking towards having a single platform instead of a set of platforms,” he tells Beet.TV in this video interview.

“More and more where we see the industry going – rather than this start-stop cadence of campaigns and insertion orders, really moving to more of a continuous cadence of always-on advertising, and that’s what the X+1 software helps Rocket Fuel to provide.”

Rocket Fuel’s just-out Q4 earnings release showed Q4 revenue jumped by 63% to $85.6m compared with a year earlier, but quarterly net loss grew nearly ten-fold to $20.5m as costs grew.

Skinner was interviewed by Beet.TV at the IAB Annual Leadership Meeting.

Beet.TV coverage of the IAB meeting was sponsored by SpotXchange.