• by April 10, 2002

NetRatings, Inc. announced today that it has acquired substantially all of the assets of the AdRelevance online advertising expenditure measurement division of Jupiter Media Metrix for $8.5 million.

Founded in 1998 and based in Seattle Washington, AdRelevance specializes in the automated retrieval and delivery of online advertising data, supplying intelligence on where, when and how much competitors and potential clients are advertising on the Internet.

The terms of the transaction include the immediate transfer of substantially all AdRelevance assets, including the AdRelevance suite of services, employees, historical data, a client base of over 150 blue-chip customers and an array of patent applications, trademarks and copyrights. NetRatings will also assume certain “identified liabilities,” according to the announcement.

The AdRelevance product family will be sold alongside the Nielsen//NetRatings suite of audience measurement services. Will Hodgman, the former President of the Jupiter Media Metrix Measurement Group, will join the NetRatings management team reporting directly to William Pulver, CEO of NetRatings.

Pulver said, "AdRelevance is the highest quality, most user friendly, and most widely accepted advertising creative and expenditure research solution in the world, and fits perfectly into the Nielsen//NetRatings array of Internet audience measurement services."

NetRatings and Jupiter called off merger plans in February amid signs regulators would challenge the deal. Earlier this month, Jupiter disclosed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it had only enough cash to last through the middle of the second quarter and it would likely go out of business unless it sold some of its assets.

"The sale of our AdRelevance division is a logical step as we continue to pursue strategic options that strengthen our overall financial position in the marketplace," Jupiter Chief Executive Robert Becker said in a statement.