Just a little over a year ago Michael Barrett was shown the door at Fox Interactive/MySpace – he was, said insiders, the guy that unfairly took the fall when the company missed its $1 billion revenue target.
Fast forward a year and things look pretty good for Barrett. His former boss is long gone from Fox Interactive and shuffled to a new job at News Corp. MySpace is on the ropes. Meanwhile Barrett, landing solidly on his feet, is running one of the hottest online advertising startups in New York: AdMeld.
The company already raised $7 million in funding late last year. Today they’ll announce a new $8 million round, bringing the total to $15 million. Existing investors Spark Capital and Foundry Group led the round.
The AdMeld platform optimizes and manages multiple ad networks and exchanges for publishers. Customers, which include Discovery, FOX News, Huffington Post, IAC, Thomson Reuters and WWE, use Admeld to manage those various networks and maximize revenues. AdMeld does things like locate undervalued ad inventory and replace it with higher performing stuff.
Publishers like this kind of thing, and the ROI is easy to prove out. AdMeld also offers publishers centralized reporting and other features.
The company is also opening a London, UK office and data center, they say, to expand European operations.
betting on Barrett is a real risk. let’s just say that Michael is very “high level”
i disagree. I’ve know MB for almost 15 years and he’s a solid guy who leads without micromanaginig. good for him and admeld on the funding.
yeah, the anonymous guys always talk big.
Isn’t Rubicon doing this already? How many of these do we need?
Well, there is alot of need for publishers to deal with all the networks and optimize CPMs, so room for multiple approaches. AdRocket does this both in email on on the web and is making great progress on raising eCPMs. There are so many variables and real-time pricing changes that an automated system is required and publishers just don’t have the resources to build this type of technology.
I think they listed all of their customers in the release. And agree with Jerky, betting on Barrett is a real risk, especially by the way. he handled Intl at FIM. The most lucrative market outside the US and he NEVER visited the offices.
Hi Michael,
Seems like he got his sweet revenge after all. Good for him.
Thanks for the post.
Mani Raj
Havoc Marketing
Giant Realm is an AdMeld partner and so far we’ve been very happy with their service. We’ve tried Rubicon and Pubmatic with far less desirable results. Congrats to Michael on the funding.
Barrett is one of the most overrated players in all the web. Road the wave at AOL, got rich there, but has had a rocky life since then. I would bet my hard-earned cash that he will either fail or be replaced within two years. Just a hunch…
jerky, stfu and go jerk off else where.
Say what you want but Michael Barrett is no entrepreneur.
Check your spelling before trying to start a flame war. I didn’t raise no idiot.
You can trace the fall of MySpace to the day that Barrett left. He is solid, easygoing and very smart.
And with the exception of DeWolfe, Jeff Berman and Jerky here- he is liked and respected by 99% of the people he has worked with…