Allen & Company LLC Retained as Financial Advisor to Support Strategic Growth Initiatives; Company Developing Next Generation Publisher-Centric Digital Ad Platform
LOS ANGELES – the Rubicon Project, the Internet advertising infrastructure company, issues a manifesto, Principles of a REVVolution – the ad server is dead, that takes direct aim at the current leaders in the ad server technology market, and details plans for the company’s new publisher-centric digital advertising technology and data platform, engineered exclusively to empower publishers to monetize content and data across all digital media, in every geographic region where their audiences consume media, and at every tier of inventory, from premium inventory to inventory that goes unsold.
“The balance in the marketplace today favors the demand-side, which has lead to significant price erosion for publishers; this erosion threatens the sustainability of the ad-supported digital publishing business. Ad serving technologies currently available to publishers of high-quality digital content are outdated, making it extremely difficult to effectively manage today’s sales organizations,” said Frank Addante, CEO and Founder of the Rubicon Project. “Working with companies whose real goal is to access more inventory on behalf of their own advertisers isn’t in the best interest of, and may even be dangerous for, publishers. Revising that legacy technology, upgrading it, and tacking on bells and whistles isn’t enough; publishers need technology designed specifically to meet their needs.”
At the PaidContent conference in New York, the Rubicon Project revealed plans to expand its platform in 2010 to offer not only additional ad serving, forecasting, and campaign management functionality across both premium guaranteed and non-guaranteed media sales, but also technology for:
– automated demand access;
– self-service advertising sales;
– centralized publisher data platform;
– pricing intelligence & controls;
– yield management;
– channel management;
– brand, ad quality and malware protection;
– all of the above across all digital media formats – Web as well as mobile, video, email and emerging devices
the Rubicon Project has retained Allen & Company as its financial advisor to support the company’s goals. Allen & Company will work with the company, among other matters, to explore options for ongoing business growth initiatives including additional strategic acquisitions, platform expansion and continued international growth.
“It is an honor to work with Allen & Company, and to have their support as we move toward providing the industry with a complete, publisher-centric technology platform that satisfies our customers and their demand partners,” said Addante.
the Rubicon Project is uniquely positioned to deliver this publisher-centric platform as its team’s experience, history of innovation on behalf of publishers, and massive scale, built on technology that provides safe and efficient infrastructure for the entire advertising ecosystem, ensures it delivers the right choice for publishers. The company, which has raised more than $42 million in funding to date, announced year over year growth of 270% at the end of 2009, and is consistently ranked as one of the top two digital platforms in overall user reach. After pioneering ad network optimization in 2007, the company launched its REVV for publishers™ platform in 2009, combining technology, tools, access and integration to deliver a complete yield management optimization solution to premium Web publishers. 2009 also marked the company’s first acquisition, of data technology company Others Online, and global expansion into markets on five continents.
To affirm its commitment to publishers, the Rubicon Project has released a manifesto which outlines the company’s core beliefs and guiding principles as they work to achieve the goal of innovating digital advertising and data technology for publishers, to keep digital media free for consumers, and to help content flourish. To read and respond to the manifesto, Principles of a REVVolution, visit http://rubiconproject.com/manifesto.
About the Rubicon Project
Headquartered in Los Angeles, the Rubicon Project launched in 2007 with a mission to automate the $65 billion global online advertising industry. The company’s Yield Management Optimization platform, REVV for Publishers™, is engineered to accelerate revenue for premium Web publishers. Backed by $42 million in funding from Clearstone Venture Partners, Mayfield Fund, IDG Ventures and GE/NBC Universal’s Peacock Equity Fund, the Rubicon Project serves premium publishers like NBC Universal, Gannett and CareerBuilder; optimizing more than 45 billion ads each month and reaching more than 500 million unique Internet users. the Rubicon Project also helps ad sales channels around the world gain access to precise audience-segmented inventory, at broad scale.
