Pulse2 Technology and Social Media News » Peacock Equity

ValueClick Acquires In-Game Ad Company Greystripe For $70 Million

Amit Chowdhry — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 07:36:28 +0000

ValueClick, Inc. (NASDAQ:VCLK) has acquired online marketing company Greystripe for $70 million. Greystripe provides ads within video games. Greystripe said that their video game advertising network reaches over 30 million users. Greystripe was founded in 2005 and they have raised over $18 million in venture capital funding from Peacock Equity, Incubic Venture Fund, Steamboat Ventures, and Monitor Ventures. ValueClick said that this acquisition will increase their market share in the U.S. mobile ad market. [DMW]

The Rubicon Project Acquires Fox Audience Network

Amit Chowdhry — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 21:38:09 +0000

The Rubicon Project is an ad optimization company based in Los Angeles, California. The company has raised $18 million in funding and they acquired the Fox Audience Network (FAN). After this round of funding, it brings The Rubicon Project’s total funding to $60 million.

News Corporation will get a small stake in Rubicon as part of the deal too. A source with paidContent said that News Corp’s ownership is about 19.9%.

FAN was created by News Corporation to sell ads for MySpace and other third-party sites. Before selling FAN to The Rubicon Project, News Corp considered folding it to MySpace. Adam Bain, the guy who “founded” FAN is joining Twitter as the president of global revenues this past August.

About 100 FAN employees will be joining staff at The Rubicon Project in the areas of engineering and product. News Corp. participated in the $18 million round of funding in Rubicon. Clearstone Venture Partners, IDG Ventures Asia, Mayfield Fund, Peacock Equity, and Jarl Mohn also participated.

[paidContent]

Rubicon Project Receives $9 Million Series C From Peacock Equity, Clearstone, and Mayfield

Amit Chowdhry — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 03:25:02 +0000

The Rubicon Project is a Los Angeles, California based advertising-optimization start-up company co-founded by Frank Addante, Craig Roah, Duc Chau, and Julie Mattern. The company has just raised a $9 million Series C round of funding, putting them at a total of $43 million. The Series C investors include Peacock Equity, Clearstone Venture Partners, and Mayfield Fund.

Rubicon Project has about 1,300 clients which include Gannett, Salon, Washington Post, and Newsweek. They optimize over 15 billion ads per month across 300 advertising networks. Rubicon monetizes ad space that has been unsold by ad networks.

Earlier this month Rubicon Project acquired Others Online. The Others Online CEO and founder Jordan Mitchell became the VP of Data Intelligence at Rubicon as a result of the acquisition.

NBC Invests $2 Million Into Mobile Ad Company Greystripe

Amit Chowdhry — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 16:05:58 +0000

Greystripe is a mobile advertising company that has recently raised $2 million from NBC’s Peacock Equity Fund. Peacock Equity Fund is a joint venture between GE and NBC Universal. This is Greystripe’s Series C round of funding. Greystripe now has about $17.6 in total venture funding.

Greystripe previously raised funding from Incubic Venture Capital, Steamboat Ventures, and Monitor Ventures. Greystripe will be powering the advertising on the applications for several media companies including Sci-Fi Channel, Bravo, and MSNBC.

BlogHer Raises $7 Million In Additional Funding

Amit Chowdhry — Sun, 17 May 2009 18:33:05 +0000

BlogHer is a community for women who blog. Last July BlogHer raised $5 million in funding as part of a Series B round. Now the company has raised an additional $7 million round of funding as part of their Series C. This brings the company to a total investment of $15.5 million.

The participants of the new round of funding includes previous investors Venrock Capital and Peacock Equity. BlogHer gained attention for hosting First Lady Michelle Obama’s blog. BlogHer has about 2,500 bloggers in their network. There are about 30 direct employees of the company. BlogHer was started in 2005 by Lisa Stone, Elisa Camahort Page and Jory Des Jardins. Stone currently serves as the CEO.

[via AllThingsD]

Peacock Equity (Joint NBC/General Electric Fund) Invests In 4INFO

Amit Chowdhry — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 10:44:21 +0000

Peacock Equity, created by GE Commercia Finance, GE Media Communications & Entertainment and NBC Universal is a $250 million global fund that invests in media and tech companies. The company recently announced that NBC Universal will take a stake in 4INFO, a San Mateo, Calif.-based company that focuses on SMS advertising. 4INFO gives access to real-time sports, business, entertainment, travel, and local information. 4INFO also provides celebrity, weather, horoscopes, stock quotes, craigslist.com listings, and health tips. The investment made by Peacock will be used to help 4INFO build a solid ad platform. 4INFO will also become NBC’s preferred mobile ad provider.

“4INFO clearly fits Peacock Equityâ€™s strategic funding objectives: it has a market-leading position within a high-growth sector and it has an exiting community of users accustomed to receiving customized, ad-supported content in text messages,â€ stated Peacock Equityâ€™s Tom Byrne. â€œMobile advertising will be a multi-billion dollar industry in the next few years as more progressive content providers and advertisers like NBC Universal realize its potential to engage audiences with targeted, measurable messages.”

Other investors in 4INFO include Draper Fisher Jurvetson, U.S. Venture Partners, and Gannett. 4INFO’s blog is available at: http://4info.typepad.com/blog/.