Local media and ad firm Marchex announced it will acquire pay-per-call ad technology platform VoiceStar for $20 million, plus $8 million in further investment in 2008 in products and infrastructure.
The company also announced the hiring of About.com co-founder and former CEO of WhenU Bill Day to lead its consumer division as chief media officer.
“With the addition of VoiceStar, Marchex offers one of the most comprehensive online advertising platforms and agency services for local advertisers at scale in the industry,” Marchex chief strategy officer Peter Christothoulou said in a release. “We can now offer local aggregators a private label search- and call-based marketing platform with distribution for their advertisements in search engines, vertical Web sites, and on our local network of Web sites.”
Marchex operates a network of more than 100,000 sites with locally-focused titles such as newyorkdoctors.com and bayareahotels.com. More than 30,000 advertisers currently use Marchex’s platform and ad services. The company also delivers ads to more than 100 search and vertical-network partners.
VoiceStar’s technology will allow Marchex to add a pay-per-call offering to that local ad network. The acquisition is expected to close by Oct. 1, and VoiceStar will continue to operate from its Philadelphia headquarters.
The VoiceStar purchase will bring with it relationships with more than 100 local ad aggregators, including Comcast, R.H. Donnelley/Dex, YellowBook USA and The Cobalt Group. Marchex already partners with AT&T and Yellowpages.com among others for local advertising.
Day will report directly to Marchex chairman and CEO Russell Horowitz.
Network
