Online advertising firm ValueClick has sold off two of its less critical subsidiaries in order to brace for what is predicted to be a tough time ahead in the web display ad market. The public company brought in a total of $18 million with the sale of Mediaplex Systems and an unnamed inkjet e-commerce company, reports AdAge.
Mediaplex, maker of AdVault, the software that helps advertising firms usher their workload through production, planning and billing, went to MediaBank — a company that specializes in solving process pain points for marketers and ad agencies. The amount of this individual sale is undisclosed, but it must have been a bargain, considering that ValueClick bought Mediaplex for $48.9 million in 2001. ValueClick will keep the rights to Mediaplex’s MOJO brand software. The purchaser of the inkjet e-commerce business has been withheld.
ValueClick has taken a bigger hit that its peers in the field due to a lawsuit brought by the Federal Trade Commission alleging that the Westlake Village, Calif.-company used fraudulent strategies to generate leads. It chose to pay a $2.9 million settlement. In addition to that, it’s been widely reported that the display business will continue to dwindle.
