• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, November 2, 2010

With designs on becoming the dominant online display advertising platform in a post-ad server world, the Rubicon Project Monday announced an ambitious plan to accelerate the scale of display ad transactions it facilitates among publishers, networks, advertisers and agencies. The plan included the long-anticipated acquisition of News Corp.'s home grown Fox Audience Network, which expands Rubicon's reach, and gives News Corp. a minority stake in Rubicon, which claims it was already doing $100 million in annual revenues before the deal, and claimed it would double that volume in 2011.

The company also announced $18 million in additional funding to give it the financial resources to fuel its growth. While it did not disclose the terms of the deal to acquire FAN, it is believed that News Corp. traded the ad network in exchange for a minority equity stake in Rubicon.

Rubicon Founder-CEO Frank Addante said the acquisition did not include FAN's direct sales organization, but only the technology and people responsible for third-party sales. He emphasized that Rubicon's plan is to help structure the "90%" of the online display marketplace he estimates currently trades through a morass of intermediaries, including general and vertical advertising networks, demand side platforms, and others.

Addante said Rubicon estimates there currently are 650 bona fide ad networks and about 25 DSPs operating in the display advertising marketplace, and that Rubicon's share of their transactions continues to grow.

He claimed that as the number of transactions processed by Rubicon grows the algorithms used to match and optimize online audiences with advertiser's brands continue to improve, making the market more efficient, and shifting the "power" back from the demand-side of the market to publishers.

He said that Rubicon ultimately plans to expand into the online video and mobile advertising markets in the future.