Zango mum on acquisition buzz |
Register here for our next TechFlash Live networking event, March 23, featuring an expert panel discussing the future of online advertising.
Zango mum on acquisition buzz
Something big is up at Zango Inc., the controversial Bellevue-based online media company formerly known as 180solutions. There's no official word yet, but all signs point to a possible acquisition by Blinkx, a video search company with offices in San Francisco and London. We've been getting anonymous tips via email, and there are some telltale clues online.
"Big news today from Zango, the company I co-founded 10 years ago," wrote Ken Smith, the brother of Zango CEO Keith Smith, in a Twitter post earlier today. "More information will be forthcoming."
"Time to get drunk for the last time as a Zango employee...a little part of me is going to die," tweeted Zango's Tommy Lee a few hours later.
The company was repeatedly in the media spotlight and under fire from privacy advocates as a notorious provider of adware. In 2006, Zango paid $3 million to settle Federal Trade Commission allegations that the company "used unfair and deceptive methods to download adware and obstruct consumers from removing it, in violation of federal law," as the FTC news release put it at the time.
Earlier this afternoon, Zango's Wikipedia entry was modified to include the sentence, "On April 17th, 2009, Zango was bought by Blinkx, a video search engine company located in California." The entry cited no source for the information.
The sentence has since been edited out by a Wikipedia user who characterized the statement as misinformation. One Zango shareholder we spoke with this afternoon hadn't been informed of any acquisition news.
Reached this evening and asked about the apparent deal, Blinkx spokeswoman Julia Blystone said her mobile-phone battery was running out and said she would call back. She hadn't responded as of 7:30 p.m. Phone calls and emails to Zango representatives including CEO Keith Smith haven't yet been returned. We'll continue to track the story and provide updates as more information is available.
About John Cook
John Cook is co-founder and executive editor of TechFlash. He has been covering the technology beat for nearly a decade, writing about startups, entrepreneurs and venture capital, most recently serving as a reporter/blogger at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
READ FULL BIOGRAPHYRecent Sponsor Posts
Seattle University Software Engineering
Chinwe Okeke (MSE’08) pursued her graduate degree while working as a developer and technical analyst for the Boeing Company. She picked the SU-MSE program for small class sizes and real world learning opportunities offered through the academic service-learning and capstone projects.
The MSE program at Seattle University is geared for working professionals with classes offered in the evenings. The program builds upon the computing experience of its students and offers courses in a variety of technical and management areas of software engineering, with an emphasis on teamwork and a disciplined approach to problem solving.
Marchex is one of Seattle’s largest ad technology companies with 300+ employees providing call and click based performance marketing products, and managing over $100m in ad budget for tens of thousands of advertisers. Our customers range from local businesses to the Fortune 500.
Our talented and creative product engineering group is hiring.
If you are an innovative software design engineer interested in solving difficult problems at scale, across a wide array of technologies from Lucene to Hadoop to Asterisk and SIP then we’d love to hear from you!
Apply now.
Technology Tax Planning – Did You Take The Deduction?
Technology companies require professional advisors who can assist in all aspects of the business. The BDO Technology Practice provides a full range of services tailored to help address the changing needs of domestic and international companies. In addition to core audit and tax services, BDO professionals can assist technology companies with:
· Revenue recognition
· Business combination accounting
· R&D tax credits
· Compensation and benefits
· Business valuations
Backed by 38 national offices and an international network in 110 countries, we have the domestic and global footprint to serve growing technology companies. Contact sphilpott@bdo.com (audit partner), mreeves@bdo.com (audit partner), psmith@bdo.com (tax partner), tzambito@bdovaluation.us.com (valuation), tfiscus@bdo.com, Director, 206.624.2020
Job Listings
- Software Development Engineer - Display Advertising
- Business Services Company
- Director Enterprise Architecture - IT
- Starbucks Coffee Company
- Senior Program Manager - External - 713665
- Microsoft Corporation
- Quality Improvement Specialist
- HCR ManorCare
- Senior Software Development Engineer - eXtreme Computing Group - 708427
- Microsoft Corporation
