NEWS: Ad Platform Adify Sold To Cox Enterprises For $300 Million

Cox Enterprises buys ad network builder Adify for $300M

from VentureBeat by Anthony Ha

Adify, whose software helps companies build their own advertising networks, has been acquired by media company Cox Enterprises for $300 million,according to Silicon Alley Insider and others.

The San Bruno, Calif. startup had raised around $27 million in total funding, with backers includingU.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, so it seems like a tempting acquisition target for a big media company like Cox, which owns Cox Newspapers (with related websites) and Cox Networks, the third-largest cable company in the United States.

The price tag must have made Adify executives and investors pretty happy. PaidContent reports 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.

Ad Platform Adify Sold To Cox Enterprises For $300 Million (Updated: Confirmation)

from TechCrunch by Erick Schonfeld

As strange as it might sound, cable company Cox Enterprises is acquiring Adify, according to the Washington Post (although it wouldn’t be so strange if the acquirer was actually parent company Cox Enterprises, which owns various media properties including Cox Communications).

Cox Buys Ad Network Adify For $300M

from Silicon Alley Insider by Michael Learmonth

Heard through the electronic grapevine and haven't been able to confirm: Cox Enterprises, the privately-held parent of Cox Newspapers and Cox Communications, is buying Adify, one of few remaining online ad networks of significant scale. Supposed Purchase price: $300 million.

Adify powers vertical ad networks for Time Warner (TWX), Comcast (CMCSA), Forbes and Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSLO). Adify investors include GE Commercial Finance (GE), NBC Universal, and Time Warner Investments (TWX).

Strictly speaking, Adify is not an ad network but a company that provides technology to allow others to launch ad networks. What does Cox Enterprises want with Adify? Cox considers it a strategic investment; the company's Web properties include AutoTrader and Cox Communications, the third-largest cable company in the US and an investor in Discovery Channel.

Online Ad Network Adify Sold To Cox For $300 Million Plus Earnout

from paidContent.org by Rafat Ali

Adify, the white-label online ad network, has been sold to an unlikely buyer, Cox Communications Enterprises, for about $300 million and earn out, we have learned and confirmed from sources. The San Bruno, CA based startup was out looking for funding, and had been getting some offers on the acquisition and decided to go with them. Investors in the company included Peacock Equity, the venture investment arm of NBC Universal (NYSE: GE), US Venture Partners, Venrock Associates and Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) Investments...it had raised a total of $27 million in funding in two rounds.