A trio of entrepreneurs who led online advertising technology company Accipiter to an acquisition by aQuantive – which was in turn acquired by Microsoft for $6 billion in May 2007 – have returned to startup life after serving a variety of roles in advertising and sales at the Redmond software behemoth.
Jeff Wood, Guy Taylor and Ryan Treichler are today announced their new company, aiMatch, as well as the limited availability for “early adopters” of its online ad technology platform. In addition, the threesome said they have also convinced former Head of Publisher Solutions EMEA for Microsoft Advertising Steve Perks to join the club. → Read More
The holidays are fast approaching and if you’re looking for great stocking-stuffer ideas, don’t forget about this $3,500 atlas that weighs almost 70 pounds. It’s simply called "Earth" — 576 pages, 154 maps, and 800 photos along with four six-feet by four-feet fold-outs make up the contents of what Millennium House, the book’s publisher, is calling the biggest atlas ever. Kinda makes you wonder if the publisher of the second biggest atlas might be planning some sort of retaliation. To keep things interesting, Millennium House will only publish 3,000 copies of the atlas. There will be 2,000 standard versions selling at $3,500 each and 1,000 gold versions selling at close to $5,500. According to CNN, "this deluxe version, with its gold leather, gold gilding, and gold plated corners will attract corporate buyers and wealthy individuals." Maybe AIG will buy a few now that they’ve got a little cash. → Read More
Online advertising firm Eyeblaster has registered for a $115 million initial public offering on the NASDAQ. Lehman Brothers and Deutsche Bank Securities are serving as joint bookrunners with UBS Securities and Pacific Crest Securities as co-managers. New York based Eyeblaster offers online campaign management solutions and services to advertising agencies and advertisers. Eyeblaster manages campaigns across digital media channels in multiple formats including rich media, in-stream video, display and search. Eyeblaster’s major competitors include Google through DoubleClick, and Microsoft with Atlas. The company was founded in 1999 and has 221 employees in 23 countries with R&D facilities in Israel. The company booked a $7.4 million profit in 2007 on revenue of $44.7 million from 979 customers. (via CNN) CrunchBase Information Eyeblaster Information provided by CrunchBase → Read More
