ValueClick is a Westlake Village, CA-based online advertising

Online advertising

Online advertising is a form of promotion that uses the Internet and World Wide Web to deliver marketing messages to attract customers. Examples of online advertising include contextual ads on search engine results pages, banner ads, blogs, Rich Media Ads, Social network advertising, interstitial...

 company, which provides online advertising campaigns and programs for advertisers and advertising agency customers in the United States and internationally.

ValueClick’s customers include advertisers, advertising agencies, and traffic distribution partners. The company was founded in 1998 and is based in Westlake Village, California.

Segments

ValueClick operates in four segments: Media, Affiliate Marketing, Comparison Shopping, and Technology.

• ValueClick, Inc. The Media segment provides a range of online media solutions in the categories of display advertising, lead generation marketing, and email marketing, as well as sells various consumer products directly to end-user customers through company owned e-commerce Web sites.

• Commission Junction. The Affiliate Marketing segment enables advertisers to develop their own online sales force made up of third-party affiliate publishers. Its affiliate marketing search services include search engine marketing and search syndication.

• ValueClick Brands. The Comparison Shopping services segment allows consumers to research and compare products from various online and/or offline merchants using company’s proprietary technologies. This segment gathers product and merchant data and organizes it into catalogs on Web sites along with relevant consumer and professional reviews, and other relevant information.

• Mediaplex. The Technology segment offers technology infrastructure tools and services that enable advertisers and advertising agencies to implement and manage their own online display advertising, search and email campaigns; and that assist online publishers with management of their Web site inventory. This segment also offers technology to deliver Web-based enterprise management systems to advertising agencies, marketing communications companies, public relations agencies, and other corporate advertisers.

Acquisitions

In 2000, ValueClick absorbed a number of smaller companies, including the San Francisco Bay Area

San Francisco Bay Area

The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...

-based ClickAgents, onResponse and ZMedia. Other companies that were acquired by ValueClick include Mediaplex, Be Free, Commission Junction

Commission Junction

Commission Junction is an online advertising company owned by ValueClick and operating in the affiliate marketing industry. The company is the largest affiliate network in North America and operates worldwide. Among the top 500 retailers using 3rd party affiliate marketing software, 62% are powered...

, Hi-Speed Media, E-Babylon, and Webclients.

In 2004, ValueClick acquired two search properties, Search123 and Simpli

Simpli

Simpli was an early search engine that offered disambiguation to search terms. A user could enter in a search term that was ambiguous and the search engine would return a list of alternatives .The technology was rooted in brain science and built by academics to model the way in which the mind...

, and the price comparison web site PriceRunner

PriceRunner

The website PriceRunner is a price comparison service launched in Sweden in 1999, and since bought by ValueClick. It allows users to compare prices on a range of products...

.

In August 2005, ValueClick agreed to acquire rival ad network Fastclick

Fastclick

Fastclick was an advertising network which was one of the most visited domains according to Alexa . Fastclick paid publishers up to 65% of revenue it generated from ads on their sites. Fastclick's minimum advertising campaign amount was 1,000 USD...

.

In December 2006 they announced the purchase of Shopping.net, an online shopping directory, for $13.3 million.

In July 2007, ValueClick paid up to $352 million to acquire MeziMedia, operator of the Smarter and Coupon Mountain

Coupon Mountain

Coupon Mountain is a deals and coupons website for online shoppers who are based the United States. Founded in 2001 by entrepreneurs Harry Tsao and Talmadge O’Neill, Coupon Mountain is one of the original coupons and deals sources online....

 comparison shopping web sites. MeziMedia was later renamed to ValueClick Brands in January 2010.

In March 2008, ValueClick paid $2.9 million to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it deceived consumers with offers of prizes such as laptops and iPods to complete surveys, by means of tempting invitations such as ‘Free PS3 for survey’.

In August 2010, ValueClick paid $42 million to acquire Investopedia, a leading financial information website from Forbes

Forbes

Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...

. Investopedia is expected to yield $10 million in revenue over a 12 month period that ends on December 31, 2010.

In April 2011, ValueClick paid $75 million in cash to acquire Greystripe, a leading mobile advertising network serves rich media advertising to over 30 million users of smartphones and other touch-screen devices across all major mobile platforms.

In August 2011, ValueClick acquired Dotomi, a dynamic display ad optimization firm for $295 million dollars.