• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, August 4, 2010

Forbes Media on Wednesday said it sold financial education site Investopedia to online ad services company ValueClick for $42 million in an all-cash deal. Founded in 1999, Investopedia offers a library of financial terms, articles, tutorials, and investing education tools, such as virtual trading simulators and exam preparation materials.

"Investopedia gives us great content, organic traffic and established advertiser relationships in the important financial services advertising vertical," said Jim Zarley, chief executive officer of ValueClick.

Based in Edmonton, Canada, Investopedia has built nearly 30,000 pieces of evergreen financial related content and develops an additional 7,000 pieces of content each year.

Investopedia generates the majority of its traffic organically and monetizes primarily by selling cost-per-impression display advertising through its direct sales force. The site presently attracts 2.2 million unique U.S. visitors per month, according to the company, along with 3.1 million newsletter subscribers, 1.7 million email subscribers, and 1.3 million stock simulator users.

Per the deal, Investopedia will run as a wholly owned subsidiary of ValueClick, within its Owned & Operated segment. The company's existing management team and employee base are expected to remain with the company. Under the terms of the transaction, ValueClick has acquired the assets and assumed certain liabilities of Investopedia from Forbes. For the twelve-month period ending December 31, 2010, Investopedia is expected to generate approximately $10 million in revenue and $5 million in adjusted-EBITDA.

Forbes bought Investopedia in April 2007 for an undisclosed sum, but has since gone on a mission to cut costs and streamline operations. Late last year, the publisher cut 100 jobs from both the editorial and business side.

Earlier this year, Forbes even sold its headquarters on Fifth Avenue to New York University. Financial terms were not released, but Forbes reportedly plans to continue to occupy the building under a five-year leaseback arrangement.