Fast growing daily deal service LivingSocial, which just raised $400 million, has acquired long suffering social advertising network SocialMedia, we’ve confirmed. The price was just $3 million, all in LivingSocial stock. Unfortunately, the company had raised around $10 million from Charles River Ventures, Marc Andreessen, Naval Ravikant and Jeff Clavier.
SocialMedia’s biggest asset today is probably its domain name. But a couple of years ago the company was tearing it up. They were one of the first companies to create a Facebook ad network that used your friends’ pictures in the ads. 2008 revenue was $15 million, and 2009 revenue was on pace to hit $25 million. Facebook tried to acquire the company, says one source. SocialMedia declined, and shortly afterwards Facebook threatened legal action against them for privacy policy violations.
What’s most fascinating about the acquisition isn’t the soft landing that the company has pulled off. It’s LivingSocial’s financials and capitalization information, disclosed during the deal negotiations, that has now landed in my inbox. More on that in a follow up post.
Update: LivingSocial Financials Exposed: $2.9 Billion Valuation, $50 Million In Revenue Per Month
LivingSocial is the social commerce leader behind LivingSocial Deals, a group buying program that invites people and their friends to save up to 90 percent each day at their favorite restaurants, spas, sporting events, hotels and other local attractions in major cities. LivingSocial has an extensive user base of more than 85 million, and is headquartered in Washington, D.C.
SocialMedia.com makes digital advertising better through People Powered Advertisements that leverage people’s social relationships in the ad units. They have ad formats incorporating Twitter, social networks, and community websites. People Powered advertising makes digital advertising better by amplifying people’s personal endorsements to friends or communities. SocialMedia.com’s People Powered Ad formats: Twitter Pulse Twitter Pulse ads run within IAB standard units anywhere on the web. The ads show readers the latest Tweets matching the campaign’s filters and prompt them to share tweets of their...
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