Advertising

Adify, the San Bruno, Calif. online advertising back office company, was acquired for around $300 million by Cox Enterprises,  the parent company of Cox Newspapers and Cox Communications. Adify has become the go-to shop for Fortune, Martha Stewart and others looking to create their own ad networks.

PaidContent is reporting Adify earned a 20 percent cut from revenues of each white-label ad network it managed. The company, which had a $3 million investment from NBC Universal, is on target this year to quadruple its $7 million revenue of 2007.

For Cox, the deal will likely be used to boost its cable holdings as well as supplant income being lost as the newspaper industry continues to bleed out.

Another reason for the buy: Cox is prepping its own ad network, according to marketing guru Andy Beal.

Adify will retain its independence and its 80 workers, the AP is reporting.

Federated Media, the upscale blog network with eyes to become a media company, let slip a few details about its plan. The pitch to bloggers: we’ll invest in you if you sign-up for long term ad contracts.

“If some of the blogs want to take some money off the table so that they can put their kids through college, we would be able to help them do that,” Neil Chase, vice president of Author Services at FM told our friends over at Silicon Valley Watcher.

Chase said FM was looking to invest 10-15 percent in blogs in exchange for longer ad contracts. This comes as the ad network finds clients aren’t so quick to buy-in as pre-recession days.

Earlier this month, John Battelle distanced his network from others, saying FM was a “cousin” to ad networks. Flush from receiving a $50 million investment, Battelle said FM is a “digital media and publishing company.”

We’d all like to attract the spontaneous buyer, the online equivalent of the consumer than picks up $20 worth of items while waiting in line to purchase the $1.50 candy bar. Well, 24/7 Real Media, the New York-based marketing company has signed up to target consumers based on their psychographic profile.

Mindset Media says it can track 20 different types of personality types, including assertiveness, creativity, self-esteem, and spontaneity.

“Every brand in the modern market has a psychographic target, and the more competitive the category, the more that target matters on the bottom line,” Jim Meyer, CEO and co-founder of Mindset Media, said in statement. “We are very proud to partner with 24/7 Real Media. Together, we make the Internet work harder for brands.”

Six Apart, the San Francisco-based blogging software company, Monday announced it has acquired Apperceptive, a New York City “social media” agency that has worked with Huffington Post, Boing Boing, Gothamist and other blogs. The move, part of Six Apart’s effort to transform itself into an ad network, brings it into competition with high-toned Federated Media.

No terms of the acquisition were released.

Unlike John Battelle’s Federated Media, Six Apart brings a publishing platform, plus the TypePad blog host service. In recent interviews, Battelle has hinted he may like to do more than serve ads to blogs, but assist their growth.

In a statement, Six Apart said the acquisition will allow it to “provide new advertising, design, implementation and site optimization services to bloggers and companies of all sizes.”

Six Apart and Apperceptive are not strangers. The New York company has worked with the blogging software provider for two years.

As part of the acquisition, Six Apart will move its headquarters to the center of New York City’s advertising district.

Six Apart will use Apperceptive to launch the Six Apart Services side of its new business.

“Our services team is dedicated to bringing all the power of social communication to every blogging community, using Six Apart platforms in connection with all of today’s leading web technologies,” Anil Dash wrote at the company’s blog.

In addition, Six Apart unveiled Six Apart Media, aimed at helping bloggers succeed. As part of that, the company introduced its own premium advertising program and gave some reasons for why it is better than the many other ad networks.

Can Six Apart succeed in the social media ad space where it is losing to WordPress and Google in the blog hosting arena? Can the company differentiate itself from the sea of other ad networks? We’ll have to wait and see.

AOL, with eyes on the blogosphere’s advertising opportunities, has acquired blog widget Sphere for an undisclosed sum. Founded in 2005, Sphere has made its way onto both small and large sites, serving up contextual news and blog posts.

After recently forming its own Technology Blog Network and continuing to reshape itself into an online advertising player, AOL’s operating chief Ron Grant explained the Sphere buy this way:

“This acquisition provides AOL with access to advertising inventory across Sphere’s network, while growing its reach to content publishers via the widget.”

On his blog, Sphere co-founder Tony Conrad said the acquisition came just at the right time.

“We are joining AOL at an opportune time. AOL is doing what great, sustainable business do every so often – they’re reinventing themselves. As the business model of the oldest and one of the biggest Internet businesses evolves, Sphere becomes an important piece of their strategy to reach across and engage the web.”

The key to Sphere’s success appears to have been its departure from an original mission as a blog search engine to a context engine able to serve up related news. After Time grabbed the widget, a number of top-rank news sites followed, including the Wall Street Journal.

Sphere will come under the domain of Bill Wilson, the executive vice president in charge of blogs, among other areas.

Although the acquisition price wasn’t announced, tech blogger Michael Arrington, citing unnamed sources Monday evening put the amount “in the $25 million range, or possibly a little more.”

John Battelle’s Federated Media has received $40 million to $50 million in third-round funding, the latest endorsement by financiers of the upper-crust blogging ad network. The funding gives FM a $200 million valuation.

In March, Battelle was reportedly seeking $20 million to $30 million in series b funding and had spurned a $100 million buyout offer as it sought a $400 million payout.

This latest news was broken by PE Hub. FM, which includes sites such as Digg, Boing Boing and Silicon Alley Insider, hopes to nearly triple its 2007 income to around $60 million.

AdBrite, the blogging advertising network, announced Thursday it has more than 50,000 member sites. The news gives the Internet ad marketplace a reach second only to Google, according to Media Post.

Founded in 2002 by Philip Kaplan and Gordon Wise, the private San Francisco, Calif. company recently announced it had hired Daniel Issen as AdBrite vice president of engineering. Issen comes from Internet auction powerhouse eBay and Internet classified ad service Kijiji.

Technorati, the blog search engine, is reportedly developing an advertising network that targets AdBrite.

Federated Media, the upscale advertising network created by Wired co-founder John Battelle, is entertaining new funding offers of between $20 million and $50 million, according to a number of reports. The advertising network, which claims BoingBoing and Digg among its roster of high-profile blogs, has already gotten around $4.5 million in financing.

Battelle confirmed to News.com that he has asked investment bank GCA Savvian Advisors to go through the offers. This latest news comes after FM reportedly rejected a $100 million buy-out offer and ad networks attract more investor cash. Micheal Arrington says Battelle is looking for a $400 million purchase price.

FM, with a bevy of 150 technology, women and design blogs as clients, is seeking its new funding after women’s ad network Glam Media is flush with $85 million in funding.

News.com reports FM has reached a point where it has cut $1 million in checks to its partners. The ad network reportedly rakes in $2 million each month - 40 percent (or roughly almost $1 million) of which the Battelle company keeps.