The deal is aimed at expanding Axel Springer’s growth strategy through targeted online job recruitment advertisements.

Axel Springer, a German publisher stated, Stepstone, its jobs portal, had acquired a 85% stake in Appcast for around $79 million.

Appcast is a U.S. tech company that specializes in programmatic advertising.

Programmatic advertising uses automation to serve job ads to people surfing the internet, using automation and analysis of their browsing history and interests.

“Through this acquisition, Axel Springer is continuing with its growth strategy and is expanding the portfolio of intelligent recruiting and matching technologies of Stepstone group,” said Springer in a statement.

Incidentally, “the main shareholders in the Berlin-based publisher recently struck a deal with U.S. private equity investor KKR to buy out minority shareholders for 63 euros a share, a deal that would allow them to jointly pursue long-term growth” said Appcast.