Engage Closing Ad-Serving Business to Focus on Software Endeavors
Andover, MA-based Engage Inc., is closing its online network advertising business to focus on it multi-channel software divisions.
Engage has also nearly completed the sale of its AdKnowlege technology and customer files to Bluestreak. Inc., a marketing-technology company in Newport, RI. AdKnowledge helps companies to serve their own ads over the Internet. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Engage will stop serving ads on its 3,000-company network on Sept. 23, and will shut down its entire media business on Sept. 28. Advertising campaigns will continue to run on Web sites within the network until the close of business on the 28th.
Some 100 employees in the ad-serving part of the company lost their jobs in mid-August. Another 125 have been asked to remain until the end of the month to keep the ad network running, although some may be offered jobs by Bluestreak, said Mark Horan, Engage spokesperson.
“With today’s announcement, we have completed our exit from the advertising network business and are now focused solely on the fast-growing market for content and dvertising-management software,” said Tony Nuzzo, Engage CEO, in a statement released last week.
The software divisions were always a part of Engage’s business, Horan pointed out. “Something like 50% of our revenue over the past year has been in the software business,” he added.
AdManager helps companies serve ads from other businesses on their site. There are about 300 clients currently using this product.
Content Manager is a software package that helps companies design and run marketing campaigns on their Web site, in newspaper circulars and with direct mail. There are about 100 clients for this package.
