• Business Week , Thursday, November 1, 2007 12:30 PM

Few independent ad networks remain after the acquisition tear earlier this year by Google, Yahoo, AOL and MSN, but among the biggest is Specific Media -- which according to CEO Tim Vanderhook, thoroughly plans to keep its autonomy. On Thursday the company announced it would put its new (and massive) $100 million round of funding from Francisco Partners toward other ad network acquisitions in anticipation of a future IPO.

Why wouldn't Specific Media want to cash out like its competitors? Because Specific and its investors think those that cashed out to major Web firms left behind an opportunity worth exploiting: advertisers and publishers alike worry about brokering their advertising transactions through Big Web, opening the door for an independent player like Specific Media. For publishers, there's a conflict interest in receiving advertising services from companies they compete with for eyeballs and ad dollars. Advertisers, meanwhile, are particularly worried that firms like Google, especially, with its pending acquisition of DoubleClick, would control too much data and wield too much power over pricing.

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