On the heels of its $100 million IPO, local online marketing company ReachLocal has acquired reputation management manager SMB Live. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
SMB -- which
stands for small- and medium-sized businesses -- will provide ReachLocal with technology to develop its own reputation management services.
"We continue to build out our suite of products to
serve our clients," said Zorik Gordon, CEO of ReachLocal.
Going forward, ReachLocal will provide automated monitoring of local review sites, social media sites, and local blogs for references to
the SMB or comments related to the SMB's business that will provide an SMB with feedback, alerts and analytics to assist it in managing its online reputation.
Founded in 2003, Calif.-based
ReachLocal itself caters to small- to medium-size business owners, which have traditionally overlooked digital advertising in favor of more trusted channels like local newspapers and direct mailings.
ReachLocal combines its own targeting technology with a direct sales team to provide businesses with a single and ostensibly cost-effective service to market with digital media.
Clearly
experiencing some degree of success, the company saw revenue more than double in 2008. During the first nine months of 2009, meanwhile, revenue was up 38% to $143.3 million -- which made it possible
to post an $11.7 million profit.
In early 2009, ReachLocal unveiled a new targeting system to help local advertisers show ads only to those consumers who previously visited the advertisers' Web
site or live in a certain area.
Nationwide, locally placed search advertising will grow 30% during the next five years -- from $4.1 billion in 2008 to $5.3 billion in 2013, according to a recent
report from Borrell Associates.
Leading the way, according to Borrell, will be ad service providers that can adopt scalable technology infrastructure and recalibrate their economics to allocate
more customer investment to search media spend.
Two years ago, ReachLocal raised $55.2 million. According to an SEC filing, ReachLocal's primary backer VantagePoint Venture Partners controls
53.22% of the company.