LIN Buys Majority Stake In Nami Media

LIN TV Corp. today expanded its digital portfolio by acquiring 50.1% ownership of Nami Media Inc., an online marketing and technology company based in Los Angeles.

Nami Media is primarily focused on the growing marketplace of online traffic quality management into CPC (“cost per click”) advertising. Founded in 2001, Nami Media’s online performance technology helps advertisers, publishers and other network partners to improve the effectiveness of their online advertising campaigns by qualifying website traffic, selecting the most relevant feeds and ad units, as well as delivering valid “clicks” in real time, which is designed to protect advertisers from low quality queries or potential click fraud.

LIN said its investment in Nami Media “fills an important niche in the company’s growing suite of digital product offerings and furthers its goal to be advertisers’ preferred choice for multiplatform marketing opportunities.” Since the launch of LIN Media’s digital business in 2007, the company has increased digital revenues by more than 300%, it said.

Wells Fargo’s Marci Ryvicker likes the deal, saying that it “provides more evidence that LIN thinks ‘outside the box’ more than its peers. Operationally, [LIN] is one of our favorite TV broadcasters.

“Financial details of this investment were not disclosed,” Ryvicker added, “but we do believe that the total investment was under $5 million and will be paid from [LIN]’s cash on hand ($37.6MM at the end of September).”  

“Performance marketing is one of the fastest growing areas of Internet advertising and our investment in Nami Media provides us with technology and synergies to maximize the effectiveness of our customers’ online advertising campaigns,” said Vincent L. Sadusky, LIN president-CEO. “Through this transaction, we have acquired a majority ownership position in a well-run company that will augment our company’s digital business.”

“We are excited about this tremendous opportunity to be part of LIN Media’s impressive portfolio of multiplatform assets,” said Alex B. Cory, CEO of Nami Media. “It represents a very important piece of our strategy to significantly grow our business and enhance our already powerful reach in the traffic quality and CPC marketplace.”