Matchbin, a company that creates CMS solutions and hosts websites for community newspapers, radio stations, and TV stations, announced today that it has acquired NAVTEQ Media Solution’s Radio and Television Group. The acquisition closes a $12 million credit facility with Silicon Valley Bank, and resulted in the creation of Radiate Media, which will offer localized content, digital CMSes and an advertising platform to local and national advertisers — among other things.
Chris Rothey, who founded Traffic.com and took it public before being acquired by NAVTEQ in 2007 (where he then became head of NAVTEQ Media Solutions), will become Radiate Media’s new CEO, while Hal Widlansky, previously the CEO of Matchbin, is to be Radiate Media’s new President and COO.
Matchbin is also announcing today that it has closed its first institutional equity financing, which was led by New York-based growth equity investor, Level Equity. Greycroft Partners and vSpring Capital also participated as co-investors in the $10 million round.
Radiate Media will use the resources of Matchbin and NAVTEQ’s broadcast media group to continue providing content solutions to the radio and television space through an exclusive agreement with NAVTEQ, as well offer solutions like Matchbin’s “Editionals”, an iPad-focused CMS plaftorm for media partners — along with directory publishing platform and local SEO-optimized websites for merchants.
NAVTEQ’s Media Solutions division was established to take advantage of its parent company’s strength in digital maps, which have driven 60 million navigation devices in the last decade, to provide location-enabled ad networks and mobile marketing solutions to both large and small publishers.
On the other side, since launching in January 2008, Matchbin has built a stable of over 700 local media partners, with aggregated website traffic seeing over 6 million unique visitors. Now, in conjunction with NAVTEQ Media Solutions’ Radio and TV Advertising Group, the newly formed Radiate Media can provide a bevy of web and mobile content apps and services to media partners, which will in turn offer merchants localized digital advertising and promotional tools to drive their businesses at a local level.
Radiate Media will offer sponsorships of broadcast content to TV and radio advertisers, as well as giving them the opportunity to add a mobile element to broadcast campaigns with marketing services like SMS campaigns, original mobile websites and apps, etc. In addition, the company will be offering a top-down mobile marketing solution that includes creative strategy, campaign design, execution, and reporting.
For more, check out Radiate Media at home here.