My friend, Robert Thompson, has a story in the Financial Post magazine that provides a fascinating glimpse behind the scenes at Guelph, Ont.-based Geosign, which built a $100-million business by arbitraging Google AdSense keywords and Yahoo Ads.
Geosign’s success allowed it to raise $160-million of venture capital from American Capital, and turned it overnight from a company with almost no profile into Canada’s tech darling.
The bottom abruptly fell out, however, when Google changed AdSense’s terms of service. Geosign had to fire dozens of employees – many of whom had just been hired – and the company was split into two with American Capital taking control of Geosign’s marketing and advertising assets, which it spun off in a new entity called Moxy Media.
Technorati Tags: Advertising, Geosigns, Google
2 Comments
and eMedia.com as well
I must say amount of changes is unbelievable, before, now, and after
“change is the only constant”
Mark,
I remember your story about Geosign when they got the VC influx. I had a friend in the ad business looking for work so I suggested he check them out. I actualled Facebook searched them and found a group called “Geosigned off” of ex-employees helping each other find jobs. I knew then their GIG was up.