Hold The Phone – Adknowledge Raises $200 Million, Plans Acquisitions

Did I say online advertising company Adknowledge raised $45 million in venture capital? I did, and they did, but Adknowledge actually secured more than four times as much in total consideration, in a combination of debt and equity financing.

I’m still waiting for someone at Adknowledge to get back to my requests for information, but this morning they publicly announced that they’ve scored $200 million in funding to pursue acquisitions in the online advertising space.

As I suspected, growth equity firm JMI Equity led the equity investment round, while Bank of America took care of the debt financing part of the equation. We’ve also learned Nokia’s Growth Fund participated in the investment round.

In a statement, Adknowledge says it plans to use the funding to further expand its network so advertisers can access inventory from valuable segments of the long tail marketplace online, such as mobile, video, content sites, and display.

The company also boasts that it closed 2010 as the largest privately-owned internet advertising network in the U.S. with over 330 employees, and $300 million in revenue.

JMI Equity General Partner Brad Woloson has joined Adknowledge’s board of directors.