Omniture – a web analytics firm – announced that they have raised $40 million, according to this article on DMNews. This round was led by Bank of America Venture Partners, and it is Omniture’s third financing round. So far, Omniture has raised a total of $65 million.
iCrossing – an SEO and SEM firm – announced that they’ve raised $13 million Series C round of financing – which includes new investors RRE Ventures of New York City and Generation Partners of San Francisco.
Wow. Adware/spyware is certainly en vogue amongst the media and
venture communities these days. (“It’s that damn Hansel. He’s so hot right now.” – Mugatu)
months ago, WhenU announced that they have raised an additional $15 million
investment from Trident Capital. WhenU is an adware company – “software-based
contextual advertising” – i.e. software that is stored on your computer and
serves ads. WhenU is making strides to distance themselves from their spyware
counterparts. $35 million in the bank and a recent court victory will go a long
way towards that end.
And speaking of becoming more legit, word is that Microsoft is buying Claria – for somewhere around $500 million. $500 million will go a lot further towards legitimacy than $35 million – and will also allow Microsoft to get deeper in to the personalized advertising game.
Sensing a trend? 180Solutions – an adware
company – is using their adware technology for an adware awareness campaign
- to inform users that 180Solutions has been downloaded, and give them
uninstall instructions. Makes sense, but it’s
still weird. 180Solutions has also filed several lawsuits against
distributors who facilitated the download of their product without
user consent. ("It wasn’t me." – Eddie Murphy)
Of course adware companies will fight tooth and nail to differentiate themselves from their spyware counterparts – but do consumers? According to a Pew Internet & American Life Project study,
80% of Internet users have heard of "spyware," but only 50% have heard
of "adware." In the end, the study found that users are modifying their
surfing behavior to avoid dealing with the hassle. For them, the
distinction doesn’t really matter. They just want it off their machine.
WARNING: While the wild west of adware/spyware is cleaned up (thanks to M&A, consumer outcry and Eliot Spitzer!), major brands should proceed with care. In this USA Today article on spyware, brands like J.C. Penney, Capital One, Vonage, Monster, Expedia, Priceline, Orbitz, Sprint, Visa, Sony, Circuit City and Mercedes are highlighted – major brands that until now have been able to claim ignorance. Our advice is to reel your brands back in, and avoid the potential backlash of appearing in lists like the one above.
According to today’s VentureWire email, Ritchie Capital has launched a $20 million VC fund focused solely on RSS.
Still unconfirmed that General Atlantic Partners is heading up a $100 million investment round in San Francisco’s Adteractive, but nonetheless, they remain active in this space. Last week, GA bought webloyalty.com – a "leading online subscription and marketing services companies providing
customized programs to e-commerce, travel and other fee-based businesses."
Continuing the squirrely theme, Adteractive (launched in March 2001) is rumoured to have raised $100 million this quarter. According to SiliconBeat, the investor is General Atlantic Partners. Our general undertanding is that Adteractive is a customer acquisition company that guarantees customers at a pre-determined metric, by running campaigns across vast quantities of pre-purchased media. Their success, which is astounding (we’ve heard $200 million in revenue), is in arbritraging the difference between the acquisition guarantee and the relatively low cost of the media; the risk is that they are on the hook for the media. But here’s a question: what exactly do they do? Arbitrage? Affiliate? Network? Affiliate Network? Media Buyers? Search? Email? All of the above?
WhenU raised $20 million in private equity financing. Yeah, we know they’ve hired Bill Day (former CEO of About.com) and are trying to distance themselves from the spyware world, but this is one of those more controversial businesses (desktop advertising software) that straddles the integrity fence.
Seems like investors are looking for the right combination of being just squirrely enough (i.e. not illegally sleazy) to make lots of money.
As your editors can well testify, it turns out that the first quarter of 2005 posted the lowest quarterly deal total in six years according to VentureWire – citing a report released by VentureOne and Ernst & Young.
Fastclick raised a $75 million Series A round (subscription required) – led by Highland Capital, Oak Invesment and Steamboat Ventures.
