The ad network Federated Media has raised $50 million at a $200 million pre-money valuation from private equity firm Oak Hill Capital Partners, I’ve heard from a source, with investment bank Savvian helping to broker the deal.
A couple of weeks ago, a separate source told me that FM was close to raising $30 million at the same valuation. At that time, Valleywag reported that fundraising wasn’t as far along as my source claimed.
Federated Media isn’t commenting on this latest rumor, and it tells me that it will let me know if or when it has news to share.
The Sausalito, Calif.-based company generated roughly $20 million to $23 million in revenue last year (not profit), according to one of the sources. Both sources say that FM is on target to make around $60 million this year, with some profit.
Many people looked at the deal and passed, said one source, but apparently it has had a solid bite.
FM sells ads for more than 200 web publishers [Disclosure: Including VentureBeat]. Some, like one commenter on our last story on FM funding, are questioning whether or not FM is actually worth this much money, as there are many advertising options available to publishers.
But Federated Media keeps on growing, and it has also been trying out some interesting forms of advertising on social networks. It has run a successful campaign with Dell on Facebook application Graffiti, an effort by Dell to brand itself as being environmentally friendly. Graffiti is an application where users can share their digital art with each other, so in this campaign, Dell held a contest for users to submit “green”-themed art.
More recently, FM and Graffiti have done the same sort of contest, but with car-maker BMW. The theme isn’t “green” — users answer the question “what drives you?” with art. Check it out here, sample below.
3 Comments
-
Sramana Mitra said:
“Some, like one commenter on our last story on FM funding, are questioning whether or not FM is actually worth this much money, as there are many advertising options available to publishers.” - Would that be me, Matt?
http://sramanamitra.com/2008/03/12/deal-radar-2008-federated-media-needs-to-focus/
-
Yakov said:
I think that more than a half of that post-money value is tied in FM’s network of blogs and sites as well as in its ad server provider
-
Allan said:
Does anyone have a clue who passed on the Federated Media deal?
12 Trackbacks
5:32 pm
Rumor: Federated Media Raises $50 Million »TechAddress said:
[...] Eric Eldon at Venture Beat is reporting on a rumor that ad network Federated Media has raised $50 million in venture capital on a $200 million valuation. Eric told me the source is solid but of course take all rumors as just that. To-date Federated Media has raised just over $7 million including $4.5 million last August. [...]
5:54 pm
Rumor: Federated Media Takes $50 Million On A $200 Million Valuation said:
[...] has rumored to have raised $50 million from Oak Hill Capital Partners on a $200 million valuation, according to VentureBeat. Total funding for Federated Media to-date would be $57.4 [...]
6:47 pm
TechCrunch Japanese アーカイブ » 噂：Federated Mediaが、評価額$200Mで$50Mの資金調達 said:
[...] Federated Media（FM）が、Oak Hill Capital Partnersから評価額$200M（2億ドル）で$50M（5000万ドル）を調達したらしいとの噂を、VentureBeatが伝えている。Federated Mediaの資金総額はこれで$57.4M（5740万ドル）になる。 [...]
7:55 pm
www.teletubis.info » Blog Archive » Rumor: Federated Media Takes $50 Million On A $200 Million Valuation said:
[...] has rumored to have raised $50 million from Oak Hill Capital Partners on a $200 million valuation, according to VentureBeat. Total funding for Federated Media to-date would be $57.4 [...]
10:37 pm
Ad Brokerage Company, Federated Media Rumored To Have Raised $50 Million said:
[...] funding source originates from a blog post written by Eric Eldon on VentureBeat. Savvian, the investment banking firm that Battelle acknowledge hiring supposedly helped with [...]
1:35 am
Federated Media Could Be The Next Big Blog Network : The Blog Herald said:
[...] been thinking about this for some time, and it makes even more sense now, with the rumor of Federated Media taking another $50 million in venture capital money, which Duncan Riley over at TechCrunch quickly connects to this response [...]
2:36 am
Federated Media podría haber recibido 50M said:
[...] red de publicidad Federated Media podría haber recibido 50 millones de dólares por parte de la firma de capital privado Oak Hill Capital Partners, que habría valorado la empresa [...]
4:40 am
Private Equity HUB - peHUB First Read said:
[...] VentureBeat reports that online ad network FM Publishing has raised $50 million from Oak Hill Capital Partners at a [...]
9:08 am
StartupNewz.com said:
Is Federated Media worth $200 Million?…
Rumors are swirling around that Federated Media has raised $50 Million from Oak Hill Capital Partners which effectively has boosted the valuation of the company to $200 Million. Eric Eldon says that the company made some $20 to $23 Million in revenues…
2:08 am
Allan Young's Incoherence said:
Social Networking is Growing Up…
Social networking has thus far been primarily about connecting with lost friends, playing simple games, and gawking at strangers. Aside from the amazing ability to reconnect with buddies from middle school, the rest of social networking mirrors normal…
6:41 pm
Private Equity HUB - That's Rich: FM Publishing Gets Big Valuation said:
[...] feel much need to wrestle down terms. Again, that’s Oak Investment Partners — a report from two weeks ago had identified the lead as Oaktree Capital Partners (which would have been really [...]
2:48 pm
What’s happening at LinkedIn? Is it getting bought? [Update 2: Or getting funded?] » VentureBeat said:
[...] stepped in with many tens of millions of dollars — just as PE firms have recently done for ad network Federated Media, IM aggregator Meebo, widget maker Slide, DIY social network creator Ning and other web companies. [...]