RSS FeedArchive for the ‘Investment’ Category

M&A Activity Dropped in Q1 2013, Deals Down 38%

jegi-stackThe first quarter of 2013 was marked by some notable acquisitions—Google acquired Channel Intelligence; Twitter snapped up Bluefin Labs and Facebook agreed to buy Microsoft’s Atlas DMT. Merger and acquisition activities for marketing and other sectors have generally cooled down, however, according to a new report from The Jordan, Edmiston Group, Inc. (JEGI), an investment bank for media, information, marketing services and technology.

The value of deals announced in the first quarter of 2013 declined 38% from $12.2 billion in Q1 2012, with fewer large transactions. Marketing and interactive services saw 118 transactions and more than $2.5 billion of value in this year’s first quarter, down from the same quarter last year by 13% and 14%, respectively.

Following last year’s year-end rush to close deals prior to the impending tax changes, the slowdown was not a surprise, Adam Gross, CMO at JEGI, told AdExchanger. "Given the historically strong run last year, it was clear there was going to be a dip and we may even see a dip the first half of this year," Gross said. "Despite that, marketing and interactive services is still a healthy market with a mix of strategic acquirers from traditional agencies and software companies. We’re also seeing a growing presence from private equities."

(more...)

The Weather Channel Aims For 'Underground' Tech Audience

The Weather Channel's acquisition of meteorological data company The Weather Underground (see release) may not provide the cable network and app operator with any immediate abilities to better predict rain or shine, but it does give it access to a well-regarded tech company that can help it lay the groundwork for new products and a wider audience.

In essence, TWC is a lifestyle and media property. The Weather Underground, best known for its radar and stats heavy Wunderground site, can help TWC attract a more tech-oriented audience of roughly 11 million monthly users and connect more directly with affiliates in Silicon Valley and in other parts of the world.

"Our goal is to have multiple brands," TWC chairman and CEO David Kenny told AdExchanger. "This will help us focus on what we do best: develop new products, while The Weather Underground concentrates on creating tools and packaging data in a way that will broaden our usage by consumers and marketers. The acquisition is a recognition that not everyone wants the weather in exactly the same way."

(more...)

Video 'Discovery' Platform Taboola Raises $10 Million Third Round

taboolaTaboola, a video recommendation app platform that publishers can put on their sites in an attempt to boost traffic and views, has raised a $10 million third round that reflects the continuing rise of online video ad dollars and the intense competition for them.

In an interview, Adam Singolda, the founder and CEO of Israeli/New York-based Taboola, outlined plans to hire more engineers at the 45-person company and to place its video distribution network on Microsoft's Xbox Live and Google TV, two platforms that are increasingly attracting interest from media buyers as an extension of web-based video ads.

The funding round, from Marker LLC, will go to support Taboola's primary business, the Taboola EngageRank, which claims to create 500 million recommendations daily served to over 130 million users per month.

(more...)

JEGI's Geffs On The Crowded Display Ad Ecosystem, Talent Squeeze, Investment Banking And More

Tolman Geffs of JEGITolman Geffs is co-President of Jordan Edmiston Group, which offers independent investment banking services to companies within the media and information industries.

AdExchanger.com: Do you think the ad tech ecosystem is too crowded?

TG: Is it crowded? Absolutely. Will every company that gets funded give a decent return to its VCs? No way. In fact, I think you could take segments of it, and if it was possible to collectively short the segment, you probably would.

There is a real race for scale going on now where you've got a few large players in each major segment, a lot of middle tier players, and many more early entrants. Some of those early entrants will have amazing innovations that will propel them to the top; most won't. Consolidation is now happening at a really fast pace, because it's a race for scale.

Last year we handled Hearst's acquisition of iCrossing, one of the largest interactive ad deals of last year. What Hearst ultimately was buying there was scale. iCrossing had to do a lot of things right for its clients in order to get to that scale, but ultimately it was because they were the scale leader in the space that they were attractive for a large, extremely well run group like Hearst to acquire.

To put it another way, iCrossing could have been doing all the things that they were doing right, but if they were half their size, this wouldn't have been nearly as attractive an acqusiton.

(more...)

Petsky Prunier's Chadda On FetchBack Sale To GSI Commerce

Petsky PrunierSanjay Chadda is Partner & Managing Director at Petsky Prunier, which advised FetchBack on its sale to GSI Commerce Inc. Read the release.

AdExchanger.com: Some think that Fetchback sold before the market collapsed for their services due to factors such as Google opening up self-serve retargeting.  How do you respond?

SC: Fetchback was approached by numerous parties late last year and early this year.  The Company had no intention of selling but after turning down several offers and certain parties became more aggressive the board decided to hire us to run a limited process.  Without going into specifics, the Company was exceeding its monthly budgets.  Fetchback was very comfortable to stay a standalone entity but ultimately found a partner that could only accelerate its growth.  This deal was not about the broader market or factors within it.  This is a combination that ultimately was about winning and taking share.

Is the market for companies offering retargeting services drying up?

Given Fetchback's rapid growth as well as others we don't see the market drying up.  Ultimately retargeting is a very effective way to enhance display advertising and its ROI and will help it gain share from other online channels.  Display is a big opportunity and tools that enhance it will only gain further prominence in the market.

(more...)

CEO Wright Says Endemic and Non-Endemic Advertisers Coming To DogTime Media

Trevor Wright of DogTime MediaTrevor Wright is CEO of DogTime Media.

AdExchanger.com: Does Adify still provide the technology "backbone" of Dogtime? How has that relationship evolved?

DogTime leveraged Adify's technology backbone to launch our vertical community, but quickly evolved beyond their capabilities and have been independent of Adify for more than a year.

Are advertisers buying from DogTime Media to target the "dog lovers" vertical, if you will, or are advertisers targeting audience with other, less endemic objectives, too?

DogTime has been successful in attracting not just endemic advertisers that want to reach passionate pet enthusiasts, but also with non-endemic advertisers who are targeting highly engaged women between the ages of 25-54, such as 20th Century Fox, Paramount, Toyota, Chronicle Books, Bissell, Eureka, Harper Collins, Dyson, etc.

Describe the revenue share. Does it vary according to publisher and advertiser format (widget vs. standard display)?

(more...)

Valueclick Display Advertising Revs Showed Q1 Strength With Vertical Network Strategy

Valueclick Display Advertising Revenue in Q1 2009Nay-sayers: ready to admit that online display advertising is not dead - it's just getting started?

In its latest Q1 earnings report, Valueclick sheds light on the growing opportunity in display as display ad revenues increased from the prior year according to PaidContent after VLCK's earnings conference call:

"Display beat expectations, gaining 2 percent to $34 million. While not earth-shattering, it's another sign that display might have hit bottom and may rise slowly. During the call, (Valueclick CEO) Vadnais noted that lead gen marketing, which makes up the other half of its media segment was down 20 percent, as spending migrated to display."

(more...)

Turn Announces Funding for Ad Exchange Platform

Turn Ad ExchangeYesterday, online ad exchange contender and Redwood City, California-based, Turn Inc., announced a new round of investment totaling $15 million.

Led by Focus Ventures and joined by Norwest Venture Partners (NVP), Trident Capital, and Shasta Venture, Turn has now received more than $37 million in equity investment since its inception - yet another signal that investors see the ad exchange space as growing importance in the years to come. Turn plans to use the latest round for building out its platform and expanding its sales teams as they continue to push ahead with clients - presumably the "national branded response advertisers" that have used or considered the exchange.

Turn tries to ride the fence with the phrase: "national branded response advertisers" - very direct response-focused in spite of the insertion of the word "brand." ...It's all DR online, perhaps? That's where the CEO seems to be guiding us. Competitors such as Google/DoubleClick, Yahoo!'s Right Media and ContextWeb's ADSDAQ would likely agree.

(more...)

$26 Million for ContextWeb in Latest Round of Financing

ContextWebContextWeb, makers of the contextual online ad exchange, ADSDAQ, announced today a Series D round of financing.

Their fourth round was led by an investment from Investor Growth Capital and additional funding came from all current investors: DFJ (Draper, Fisher and Jurvetson), DFJ Gotham Ventures, Updata Partners, DFJ New England, plus Gold Hill Capital.

With acquisitions of Right Media by Yahoo!, DoubleClick by Google and AdECN by Microsoft the burgeoning ad exchange space continues to attract buckets of money for those with their toes in the exchange waters.

(more...)

Ad Exchange AdECN Acquired By Microsoft

AD ECN advertising exchangeFeeling it couldn't be left out of the advertising exchange party, Microsoft, acquired tiny AdECN for what some suggest is in the $50-75 million range.

In the wake of previous advertising exchange platform purchases such as Google's $3.1 billion acquisition of DoubleClick which included its exchange and Yahoo!'s $700 million purchase of RightMedia and RMX, Microsoft evidently felt that it needed to have its own ad exchange tools and AD ECN fit the bill.

In the Microsoft press release, they state, "AdECN brings both key technologies and significant domain expertise to the Microsoft team."

According to Marketwatch, Microsoft's Kevin Johnson has said that AD ECN will become part of Microsoft's growing Ad Center platform.

(more...)