Thursday, February 3, 2011

Go2 Media sells mobile ad tech to Poynt

By Galen Moore and Rodney H. Brown

Boston-based mobile content delivery company go2 Media Inc. has sold its local advertising publishing platform assets to Canada’s Poynt Corp. for $450,000.

The deal calls for Calgary-based Poynt to acquire the key technologies and contracts of go2 Media’s ad publishing operations. That includes all “source code, related documentation and all transferable publisher and advertiser agreements related to the monetization or distribution of location advertising.” The core business of go2 Media, its local event and activities site www.go2.com, is not affected by the sale, according to CEO Daniel Smith.

Boston-based Matt Kojalo, formerly a sales manager at mobile ad tech firm M-Qube, and later VP of business development at mobile social network MocoSpace, will head up the new business line tied to the go2 Media acquisition, the company said. Kojalo has been at Poynt since December, with the title vice president of global advertising.

According to a Poynt official, go2 Media’s ad publishing platform is generating revenue, but the company did not disclose the amount.

Go2 Media has raised at least $15 million since it was founded as 80108 Media Inc. in 2007. The most recent round was for $3 million in July of 2009, led by General Catalyst Partners of Cambridge. The company won’t be seeking any more funding and is “considering its options,” Smith said, who declined to discuss specifics of go2 Media’s revenue or profitability status.

Go2 Media was formed from a 2007 merger between Boston’s 80108 Media Inc. and California’s UDS Directory Corp. – now known as go2 Directory Systems. In 2008, go2 Media was picked to distribute content through a new mobile sports portal by Sporting News, a division of Charlotte, N.C.-based American City Business Journals, the parent company of Mass High Tech.