Berlin-based job board StepStone announced that it acquired an 85% stake in Appcast for approximately €70 million.

StepStone is part of Axel Springer. Staffing Industry Analysts identifies Axel Springer as one of the largest job board operators in the world.

Appcast provides software for increasing the efficiency of online jobs advertising. It was founded in 2014 by CEO Chris Forman, and is based in New Hampshire, US. It employs approximately 100 people spread over four locations.

Programmatic advertising is automated bidding on advertising inventory in real time, for the opportunity to show an ad to a specific customer, in a specific context. According to Forrester, programmatic ads will account for the majority of all digital advertising spend over the next few years.

“Appcast is a very fast-growing company and the perfect investment for us,” said Andreas Wiele, president classifieds media Axel Springer SE. “With the acquisition of a majority stake in the leading US company for programmatic job advertising, the StepStone group takes the next step towards becoming the leading international digital job classifieds provider.”

StepStone employs more than 3,000 people. Prior to the Appcast acquisition, StepStone acquired German-based e-learning platform Studydrive in January.