New media direct marketing firm Advertising.com is attracting some old money with a $57 million strategic investment round led by Reuters Group PLC. The Baltimore-based Advertising.com offers Internet-enabled advertising solutions for targeting consumers that feature an integrated range of Web, e-messaging, desktop, and wireless products.

Joining the venture capital arm of the venerable Reuters News in backing Adveretising.com were Dulles, Va.-based America Online, Inc. (NYSE: AOL), WPP Group plc, WorldCom Venture Fund, Grotech Capital Group, New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Blue Chip Venture Capital Company Ltd., Wheatley Partners, Credit Suisse First Boston Private Equity, and Access Technology Partners, LP, an affiliate of Chase Capital Partners.

Credit Suisse First Boston Technology Group acted as financial advisor to the company for the placement.

"Advertising.com has established itself as a leading technology provider for online advertising and marketing services," said John Taysom, founder and joint chief executive officer (CEO) of the Reuters Greenhouse Fund. "This is a tremendous opportunity for us to invest in the online advertising industry and in a company that has continuously proven itself by developing innovative marketing strategies and products to match the needs of this growing industry."

The company's advertising solutions are based on its optimization and database technology, called AdLearn. Its automated technology combines ad and site-based data with anonymous individual user preferences in a real-time environment to solve for any objective function such as a sale, registration, download, or other form of desired action. The AdLearn technology automatically analyzes upwards of 12,000 variables simultaneously to produce results continually two to three times the industry average measured by return on investment. Advertising.com delivered approximately 4 billion advertising messages in June.

"This financing will provide Advertising.com with the resources to move more rapidly toward becoming the leading provider of integrated Internet-enabled marketing solutions," said Scott Ferber, co-founder and CEO of Advertising.com. "With extensive backing from key partners, Advertising.com is sure to experience continued growth and advancements in all our product offerings."

Advertising.com's advertising solutions include over 5,000 web sites in the AdGlobal Network; the AdPublications Network, a direct e-mail newsletter service; desktop advertising products; and wireless advertising solutions including the AdBroadcast service, the first to allow consumers to earn revenue in exchange for receiving targeted marketing messages on their wireless devices, and WAP ad serving technologies.

Founded in August 1998, Advertising.com was recently cited by Dun & Bradstreet and Entrepreneur Magazine as the fastest growing new media company in the country. The company's clients include numerous Fortune 100 corporations and leading Internet advertisers and agencies such as MotleyFool.com, Entertaindom, Beyond Interactive, SF Interactive, Inc., and Mediaplex.

LATEST NEWS

Microsoft's Dynamics ERP to Gain New Services
Barnes & Noble's e-Reader Nook Sold Out Already
Memory Market Due for Big Shift in 2010
Microsoft: No 'Back Door' in Windows 7
Tech's H-1B Hiring Faces 'Employ America Act'

In addition to its headquarters in Baltimore, the company has offices in New York, Mountain View, and San Francisco. Advertising.com maintains a Web site at http://www.advertising.com.