VentureBeat

updated after reaching CEO Russ Fradin and Cox Chief Financial Officer John Dyer

Adify, whose software helps companies build their own advertising networks, has been acquired by media company Cox Enterprises for $300 million, according to various sources.

We’ve since confirmed the acquisition with CEO Russ Fradin (see his own blog post here).

The San Bruno, Calif. startup had raised around $27 million in total funding, with backers including U.S. Venture Partners, Venrock Associates, GE Commercial Finance, NBC Universal, and Time Warner Investments.

Adify has built many vertical ad networks and its client list that includes the Guardian, Forbes.com and NBC WeatherPlus. Some speculate that Adify was a strategic acquisition target for Cox, which is a private but giant media company that owns Cox Newspapers (with related websites) and Cox Networks, the third-largest cable company in the United States.

However, Fradin downplayed the strategic nature of the deal, instead saying it was just the latest move by Cox to enter a high-growth media business, something it has done consistently over the years. Cox started as a newspaper company, but then diversified with each new innovation, moving to radio, TV and eventually online, building Autotrader, for example, cannibalizing its own existing classifieds business. Cox Chief FInancial Officer John Dyer also told us Cox’s media properties could use some help to build their own ad networks, but he said the main reason for the deal was Cox executives’ belief that Adify’s business will continue to grow.

The price tag must have made Adify executives and investors pretty happy. PaidContent reports (and we’ve since confirmed) that the company brought in $7 million in revenue in 2007 and was set to bring in around $35 million this year. Adify launched in 2006 and was founded by Larry Braitman and Richard Thompson, the team that also created Flycast Communications a decade earlier.

The company has built 108 ad networks, Fradin said.

(Updated with Comscore and Hitwise stats, which show Veoh’s numbers lower than the company states; also updated with a fuller list of investors)

Veoh, the San Diego video-sharing site backed by former Disney exec Michael Eisner, has raised another $26 million in funding, giving it a massive war-chest exceeding $41 million.

PE Hub has the news.

The video sharing site came out of testing mode in February, and is different from most sites because it uses peer-to-peer technology (a technology that taps the computers of regular users) to distribute DVD-quality video, or better than the standard YouTube video.

However, it is not alone in using such technology. Joost, an IPTV company using P2P, recently raised $45 million in venture backing. And there’s a new player, Babelgum, launched by Fastweb founder Silvio Scaglia with $13.2 million of his own money.

With Veoh, people can upload videos and then can syndicate them to other popular sites including MySpace and YouTube. Joost is also trying to encourage such community activity, offering sharing, chat, IM and even blogging from within a show. Veoh lets producers make money through a revenue share or by charging a fee. Babelgum lags on the social front, and also is behind in pulling in content, and has evident advantage anywhere else, so it is a long-shot at this point.

Veoh says its “user base” is now 12.5 million, up from 4.4 million in February — we’re assuming that’s monthly uniques, but are trying to confirm. (Update: Comscore shows them much lower; see below.)

According to PEHub, Goldman Sachs led the round for Veoh at a rumored $60 to $70 million pre-investment valuation, with Goldman vice president, Pete Perrone, joining the Veoh board. Existing shareholders Spark Capital and Shelter Capital Partners also returned. Time Warner Investments, another previous investor, may also have invested. (Update II: Turns out, other new backers also include former Viacom and MTV Networks Chief Executive Tom Freston’s Firefly3, and Jonathan Dolgen, former Chairman and CEO of Viacom Entertainment Group.  Meanwhile, Michael Eisner’s Tornante Company invested in an earlier round.)

Veoh and Joost have now each raised far more cash than their predecessors did — more than YouTube, MetaCafe and DailyMotion put together, for example.

Update: Here are Comscore stats for worldwide unique visitors (age 15+) for April 2007:

Youtube: 163.2 million
Dailymotion: 25.3 million
Metacafe: 23.2 million
Veoh: 5.5 million
Revver: 945,000

Update II: Here is Hitwise: