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Rebekah Brooks, chief executive of News UK, left the offices of Unruly in London on Wednesday.Credit Neil Hall/Reuters

News Corporation announced Wednesday that it was buying Unruly, a video ad technology company, in a deal worth up to $176 million that underscores the publishing company’s continued push to remake itself for the digital age.

Founded in 2006, Unruly offers advertising products that help predict the popularity of videos across social and digital media, and also deliver targeted mobile and video ads.

Robert Thomson, chief executive of News Corporation, said in a statement that Unruly’s expertise in digital and mobile video would benefit companies under the News Corporation umbrella, including HarperCollins Publishers and Realtor.com.

“Unruly complements our traditional editorial and commercial expertise with contemporary insight into how people read, watch, buy and sell in the digital era,” he said.

Unruly will operate as a separate business group and report to Rebekah Brooks, who this month returned to News Corporation as chief executive of the company’s British media operation, called News UK. The position includes responsibilities for the acquisition and development of digital assets. Four years ago, Ms. Brooks was embroiled in a phone-hacking scandal in Britain. She was arrested and accused of phone hacking, among other crimes, and later was acquitted.

The acquisition of Unruly includes a cash payment of about $90 million at closing and up to $86 million in future payments if the company meets certain objectives. The deal is expected to close by the end of the September.