As previously announced (where was I?), The Berry Company has scooped up some of the assets of WebVisible, including some of its engineers. Charles Laughlin’s post discussing the acquisition was pointed out to me by several people today.
According to the release that went out:
The Berry Company, LLC today announced that it has acquired the Geneva interactive advertising platform and related intellectual property of WebVisible, Inc. The Geneva platform facilitates the development, launch, execution, measurement and administration of local advertising campaigns through an integrated suite of search engine marketing (“SEM”), bid management and other features.
The technology assets will be owned and independently operated by a newly formed, indirect subsidiary of TBC Holdings based in Playa Vista, California. Approximately 25 software development, product management and other technical staff have joined the new company, which will focus on expanding Geneva’s capabilities and supporting new and existing users of the platform.
According to Laughlin’s interview with Berry’s Eric Owen, the company got some engineers and a few others in the deal in addition to the platform. I hope that’s a good outcome for those individuals.
The Berry Company is/was a reseller of the Yodle platform — its biggest in fact. I wonder how this deal will impact the Berry-Yodle relationship?
I originally wrote about the demise of WebVisible on December 27. Since then additional details have out about internal politics, strategic missteps and a massive advertiser churn problem.
January 27th, 2012 at 5:15 am
Haven’t heard much of Berry over the years. Who backed them? How much cash do they have up their sleeves for further acquisitions? Or from here do they plan to grow organically?
January 27th, 2012 at 8:32 am
Somebody was dumb enough to buy Geneva?
January 27th, 2012 at 2:13 pm
The Berry Company was a sales unit owned at one point by AT&T. Local Insight Media bought it. LMI went into bankruptcy and re-emerged, chaning the company’s name to The Berry Company.
January 27th, 2012 at 10:11 pm
Thanks Greg.
Interesting background. Would you say that the current mangement/financiers behind Berry specialise in picking up distressed (read bankrupt) assets in the local space?
January 27th, 2012 at 10:31 pm
Yes, that’s exactly correct
January 28th, 2012 at 3:45 pm
Earlier this week, The Berry Company did in fact announce the purchase of the Geneva platform and the hiring of approximately 25 software developers, product managers and other technical staff. Late last year, Berry learned that WebVisible was in severe financial distress and in the process of dissolving.
When we looked at the platform we identified a number of assets that can be made useful to us. The platform supports not only SEM, but also includes dashboard capabilities, a call tracking network and an order entry and ad insertion system with billing functionality. These are all key attributes to help Berry provision more digital products. Over the coming months, Berry will invest in the platform to ensure it is competitive in the marketplace and meets Berry’s needs as it brings new digital products to market. When we do light up the new platform it will be under a new company name and carry new branding.
So what does this mean for our partnership with Yodle? We value our relationship with Yodle highly. We remain a reseller of Yodle’s products and are proud of the partnership we’ve built with them. Their products are terrific and their people fully committed to the relationship.
The Berry Company is a leading provider of local search and marketing solutions, generating leads for our advertising clients and enabling consumers to efficiently find the products and services they need. The Berry Company serves approximately 170,000 advertising clients throughout the United States. We are an authorized reseller of YP.com in all of our markets, and provide our clients with online listings and video advertising through this leading national Internet Yellow Pages site. The Berry Company also provides small and medium-sized businesses with website development and search engine marketing services.
January 28th, 2012 at 4:39 pm
Thanks Eric for the context and explanation.
February 1st, 2012 at 4:35 am
All i can say that the two months i worked for webvisible was enough to notice how poorly it was run.. no surprise that this company went down.. with about 10 52″ lcd tvs just seating there in the storage room and one being used as a table… they had way too much money to burn.. Karma