• Financial Times, Friday, April 16, 2010 1:10 PM

Demand Media, a startup that mines online search engine data to generate thousands of videos and Web stories a day -- what some call a "content farm" -- has hired Goldman Sachs to explore an IPO. The company could file for an IPO as early as August, citing "people familiar with the plans."

Founded by former MySpace chairman Richard Rosenblatt, Demand has created a system through which writers and programmers are assigned stories or projects based on a software algorithm, which determines the interest of Web visitors and calculates potential revenues from the content. To date, it's struck deals to supply content to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Gannett's USA Today. People familiar with the company said it is expected to generate about $250m in revenue annually. Since 2006, the company has raised $355 million from such investors as Goldman Sachs, Oak Investment Partners, Spectrum Equity Investors and Generation Partners.

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