The Rubicon Project Raises Another $18 Million, Completes Fox Audience Network Acquisition

The Rubicon Project, a Los Angeles based display ad optimization platform, confirmed today that it has completed its acquisition of parts of the Fox Audience Network from News Corp. I outlined the main details of the deal last week. Rubicon is purchasing mostly the technology (ad server, MyAds self-service ad buying platform, targeting technology, realtime bidding algorithms) and taking on about 100 of FAN’s technology employees (after the other half of FAN’s employees, the sales team, lost their jobs last week). FAN’s third-party ad network is not part of the deal.

At the same time, the Rubicon project raised another $18 million from investors including News Corporation, Clearstone Venture Partners, IDG Ventures Asia, Mayfield Fund, and NBC Universal’s Peacock Equity Fund. So News Corp now owns a minority stake in the Rubicon Project as a result of this transfer of assets plus some cash.

The company expects revenues to hit $100 million in 2010, and says it hit profitability for the first time in the month of October. [Release]