Marchex continues to expand its local advertising and content capabilities with its acquisition of VoiceStar, the pay-per-call and call tracking company. The VoiceStar acquisition adds more than 100 local advertiser aggregators, including Comcast, The Cobalt Group, R.H. Donnelley/Dex, and YellowBook USA to Marchex’s current partner roster, which includes AT&T and Yellowpages.com.
Marchex also said that it has hired former About.com head Bill Day as its Chief Media Officer. Some of us got to know the talented Mr. Day when he served as Prodigy’s resident boy wonder in the early 1990s. The hiring should give the company a media sensibility that it –and most other local advertising companies — has sometimes lacked.
According to a company press release, Marchex is paying $20 million for VoiceStar — $12.9 million in cash, and the rest in options. It promises to dedicate another $8 million for corporate development. VoiceStar’s location will stay in Philadelphia. The release notes that VoiceStar’s 2008 revenues are expected to double from expected 2007 revenues of $1.5 million; and that doesn’t include cross-selling opportunities that are now possible with Marchex.
“We can now also add proprietary pay-per-phone-call advertising units to our network of local Web sites, which allows us to increase the direct monetization of our own properties,” notes Marchex’s Peter Christothoulou, per press release. The release also notes that VoiceStar “increases Marchex’s ability to directly monetize its… network of Web Sites, lessening its dependence on third-parties and increasing….. revenue (via) call-based advertising units.”
Congratulations to Ari on all his hard work and on a nice exit with Marchex. Marchex’s display of commitment to PPCall gives further encouragement other self-funded pay-per-call pioneers such as we at wwww.ZiffLeads.com (launched in 2005) of SPG Solutions.
We have built from scratch a comprehensive and proprietary pay-per-call ad platform and network, a large direct advertiser base, and a substantial multi-media publisher network.
With triple-digit quarterly growth, expected revenue this year of well over 3X that of VoiceStar’s and the turning of a significant profit, our excitement for the PPCall opportunity only continues to grow.
SPG is like Keen.com: mostly psychic hotlines
SPG makes its money mostly on psychics as opposed to real newspapers, yellow pages and ad agencies
http://www.accuratepsychicadvice.com/privacy.html
http://www.ladyathena.com/Click4Advisor.htm
Unfortunately, psychic hotlines aren’t too bankable. Good luck, though!
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[...] Update: Peter at Local Onliner has more info about Marchex’s strategy: “We can now also add proprietary pay-per-phone-call advertising units to our network of local Web sites, which allows us to increase the direct monetization of our own properties,” notes Marchex’s Peter Christothoulou, per press release. The release also notes that VoiceStar “increases Marchex’s ability to directly monetize its… network of Web Sites, lessening its dependence on third-parties and increasing….. revenue (via) call-based advertising units.” [...]
Voicestar acquired by Marchex
Congratulations to Ari and Todd on their sale to Marchex (NASDAQ: MCHX). I first met the Voicestar guys back in 2005. They were among the pioneers of the pay-per-call market — and I recall being amazed by how much they
[...] More information here: Kelsey Group BlogTechcrunchThe Praized BlogThe Local OnlinerScreenwerkPaidContent [...]
[...] Web exec Bill Day, who formerly led WhenU (a behavioral targeting firm), About.com and Prodigy, was announced yesterday as Marchex’s new Chief Media Officer (an interesting title). The position is a new one for the publicly-owned company, which isn’t well understood, but has considerable local assets, including 100,000 vertical domains, an ad network, and OpenList. [...]
[...] More information here: Kelsey Group BlogTechcrunchThe Praized BlogThe Local OnlinerScreenwerkPaidContent [...]