BlueKai Buys TrackSimple

Bellevue, WA-based BlueKai, an online-marketing data company, said today it has acquired TrackSimple, a media analytics startup also based in the Seattle area. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but a recent filing with the SEC suggests the purchase price was about $6.8 million in BlueKai stock. TrackSimple was founded by a pair of ex-Amazon employees and raised a $2.5 million Series A venture round led by Ignition Partners in 2008. BlueKai has raised a total of about $35 million in venture capital; its investors include Battery Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, and GGV Capital. Xconomy first wrote about the company’s approach to providing Web-browsing data to advertisers and publishers back in 2008.

Author: Gregory T. Huang

Greg is a veteran journalist who has covered a wide range of science, technology, and business. As former editor in chief, he overaw daily news, features, and events across Xconomy's national network. Before joining Xconomy, he was a features editor at New Scientist magazine, where he edited and wrote articles on physics, technology, and neuroscience. Previously he was senior writer at Technology Review, where he reported on emerging technologies, R&D, and advances in computing, robotics, and applied physics. His writing has also appeared in Wired, Nature, and The Atlantic Monthly’s website. He was named a New York Times professional fellow in 2003. Greg is the co-author of Guanxi (Simon & Schuster, 2006), about Microsoft in China and the global competition for talent and technology. Before becoming a journalist, he did research at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Lab. He has published 20 papers in scientific journals and conferences and spoken on innovation at Adobe, Amazon, eBay, Google, HP, Microsoft, Yahoo, and other organizations. He has a Master’s and Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT, and a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.