Google Ventures and First Round Capital-Backed VigLink Acquires DrivingRevenue.com

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--VigLink today announced that it has acquired Driving Revenue, Inc., the pioneer in outbound traffic monetization. Both companies provide Web publishers an entirely new revenue source based on the value of their outbound traffic, with no impact on customer experience. Driving Revenue brings well over $100 million of merchandise transactions to the company, making the combined entity the definitive leader in the space. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

“We are proud of what we were able to accomplish in building Driving Revenue to our position in the market, and are excited to become part of the VigLink organization”

U.S. Internet merchants currently pay more than $2 billion in annual commissions to Web publishers for their traffic and the business it brings – a practice known as "affiliate marketing." Both companies dramatically reduce the work involved and combined they track over 2 million publisher clicks a day and 3 billion monthly page views across more than 12,000 merchant programs and dozens of networks.

"Driving Revenue was the original innovator in this space and has transacted well over $100 million worth of merchandise through their system," according to Oliver Roup, CEO of VigLink. "This acquisition provides us with the ability to accelerate our already burgeoning business, as well as to bring on a fantastic team with incredible depth in the affiliate marketing industry."

Combined customers include avsforums.com, Forum Foundry, Huddler, Internet Brands, KickApps, Macworld, PCWorld, ReadWriteWeb, Technorati, Tom's Hardware, Posterous, and numerous others.

"Quite simply, if you're a Web publisher who hasn't recognized the value of your outbound traffic, you are leaving money on the table," said Raymond Lyle, CEO and Co-Founder of Driving Revenue. "Dozens of our publishers make six figure incomes for a one-time investment of one minute of work. Who isn't interested in that?"

All employees of Chicago-based Driving Revenue will be retained by VigLink and continue to work out of their Chicago office, with Raymond Lyle assuming the title of President. In addition, Driving Revenue CTO and Co-Founder, Jack Bafia, will join the VigLink team in San Francisco.

"We are proud of what we were able to accomplish in building Driving Revenue to our position in the market, and are excited to become part of the VigLink organization," according to Bafia. "In combining our team, our technology, and our client base, we will unleash a new wave of innovation from which publishers, merchants and networks will all benefit."

About VigLink

VigLink has created an economy of links, allowing Web publishers to supplement site advertising revenue automatically and transparently by leveraging the value of their outbound traffic. VigLink offers Web publishers the opportunity to embed just a few lines of JavaScript on their page template, and utilize any of a suite of tools that drive incremental revenue for the publisher and incremental sales to the down-stream merchant. VigLink is backed by Google Ventures, First Round Capital, and individual investors including LinkedIn Founder Reid Hoffman, former Google executive and current LinkedIn VP of Product Dipchand Nishar, and noted technology entrepreneurs Niel Robertson, Hadi Partovi, Ali Partovi, Carlos Cashman and Micah Adler. For more information, visit the VigLink website at http://www.viglink.com.

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