Federated Media Acquires Lijit Networks (Now Reaches 300 Million Uniques)

Federated Media Publishing announced that it has acquired Lijit Networks Inc., a provider of advertising services, audience analytics and reader engagement tools for online publishers. The combination of the two companies would allow it to reach almost 300 million global unique visitors, according to Quantcast.

Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Explaining the acquisition, Deanna Brown, chief executive officer, Federated Media Publishing, said:

“The Lijit Networks team is just as passionate and committed to powering publishers as we are at Federated Media Publishing and that was a crucial element to this decision. Our combined relationships, proprietary tools and conversational marketing services will be invaluable to publishers and advertisers alike.”

Meanwhile, Todd Vernon, founder and CEO of Lijit Networks, has this to say on the importance of the sale:

“Federated Media invented how to leverage authentic voices and engaged conversations that exist in the independent web. The combination of the two companies is a game changer in the industry that unlocks new opportunities for both companies through our combined publisher network.”

With the addition of Lijit Networks’ existing publisher relationships, Federated Media Publishing will now reach more than 77,000 online publishers and nearly 15,000 expert communities, making it one of the largest companies to power publishing on the web.

In the end, it would be the online publishers who should benefit from this acquisition. Federated Media, once seen as the entity that handles ad sales for larger sites, can now cater to smaller ones as well.