Innovation Interactive, the digital marketing company that owns such online service agencies agencies as search marketing firm 360i and media management platform SearchIgnite, announced today that it has completed a buyout from its parent company, Livedoor Japan.
The buyout was funded by Innovation’s management team and employees with financial backing from ABS Capital partners. Terms of the sale were not revealed.
Besides 360i and SearchIgnite, the Innovation holdings purchased include the Innovation Interactive network, which offers text and display-ad inventory from a group of proprietary and third-party content sites and direct-navigation domains.
“We are excited to once again have the opportunity to be independently owned and operated,” Will Margiloff, founder and CEO of Innovation Interactive, said in a statement. “We can tap into our entrepreneurial spirit to innovate quickly within the rapidly evolving marketplace.”
Livedoor Japan, a large Japanese Internet service provider and Web media company, acquired Innovation in November 2005 for an undisclosed sum. Livedoor’s founder and CEO Takafumi Horie, once a superstar among Japanese e-businessmen, was convicted of securities violations last year and sentenced to two and a half years in prison. He is appealing the verdict, a particularly harsh one for white-collar crime in Japan.
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