[Updated 9/15/09 1:20 pm. See below.] Seattle-based Others Online, a Web advertising and optimization startup led by founder and CEO Jordan Mitchell, has been acquired by the Rubicon Project in Los Angeles for an undisclosed price. Mitchell has become vice president of data intelligence for the Rubicon Project, which automates the buying and selling of online advertising. Rubicon announced the news this morning, although the acquisition apparently began in June. Terms of the deal were not released.
“We built Others Online to specifically help publishers leverage data to make more money,” Mitchell said in a statement. “We were looking to partner with a company that was going to use our technology on a massive global scale, and we found that indeed with the Rubicon Project.” On his LinkedIn page, Mitchell refers to Rubicon as “our favorite customer.”
Reached by e-mail, Nicole Jordan of the Rubicon Project says four employees of Others Online (including Mitchell, presumably) have joined Rubicon. They are staying in Seattle but will commute to Los Angeles on a regular basis, she says. [Paragraph added to provide more details of the acquisition.]
The Rubicon Project says that “Others Online’s technology will serve as an enhanced data infrastructure foundation to unite disparate data points from multiple data providers to create a singular, data-rich view of audience for publishers, ad networks, exchanges and audience rep firms.”
Mitchell started Others Online in January 2006. The idea was to offer online publishers “behavioral profiling” software to help them better understand what their audience cares about. Others Online also provides behavioral analytics and ad services to help publishers better target and generate revenues from their audiences. Previously, Mitchell founded an e-business software firm in Seattle, which he sold in 1996 and then became part of Meridian Partners (now Saltmine). He was also the co-founder and CEO of Siaxx, an IT systems management startup. Mitchell got into online advertising through 121Media, which he joined as chief operating officer and director in 2003.
