Baltimore – Taking advantage of the rapidly growing mobile
advertising market, Millennial Media, which operates the largest independent
mobile ad network in the U.S., said on Wednesday it has raised $27.5 million in
a new round of funding.
Bessemer Venture Partners, Columbia Capital, Charles
River Ventures and New Enterprise Associates (NEA) participated in the round,
which increased the company’s total backing to $65 million since its inception
in 2006.
Baltimore-based Millennial said it will use the proceeds to build on
last year’s acquisition of mobile analytics firm TapMetrics with additional
acquisitions this year, as well as investments in its international and
platform lines of business. The company already tripled its revenue in 2010.
"The mobile model continues to expand beyond the phone, and is becoming
the new, device based internet via apps on everything from refrigerators to
tablets to televisions," said Paul Palmieri, the company’s president and
CEO.
Millennial said its mobile ad network currently reaches more than 85% of
U.S. mobile web users and serves more than 17 billion mobile ad impressions a
month.
The news comes nearly five months after The Wall Street Journal reported
that BlackBerry smart phone maker Research in Motion (RIM) was in discussions
to acquire the company.
The talks, however, reportedly hit a snag over
Millennial’s asking price of $400-$500 million, which was based on the acquisition
prices of rivals AdMob and Quattro Wireless.
Related Links:
http://www.millennialmedia.com
