5to1, Inc., (OTCBB:TIMR) - a publisher-controlled, online advertising alliance, announced today the successful completion of a financing and reverse merger.
The funding was organized by the CEO and founding investors of interclick (Nasdaq:ICLK) along with The Frost Group. The Frost Group led the $6.5 million Investment. 5to1 will continue its business as a wholly owned subsidiary of 5to1 Holding Corp under the leadership of 5to1's current management team which is headed by Chief Executive Officer, James Heckman. Effective November 11, 2010, the Company will be quoted on the OTC markets under the symbol "FTOH".
5to1 has formed an alliance of major media publishers, managing and selling unsold inventory on a publisher-only controlled advertising platform. The company was founded by former Fox Interactive Media executives, James Heckman (CEO) and Ross Levinsohn (Chairman) who were able to gather many of the top digital pioneers in the industry to join as co-founding advisors and investors, including Levinsohn's former partner at Fuse Capital, Jonathan Miller (News Corp. CEO Digital Media), who helped incubate the model with former Fox and AOL Sales head, Michael Barrett; Michael Kassan and Wenda Harris Millard of Media Link; former CBS digital head Quincy Smith; digital music pioneer Fred Davis; former MTV CDO Jason Hirschhorn; former Tribune President of Broadcasting Ed Wilson; founding CEO of ESPN.com, Mike Slade; and Casey Wasserman, CEO of WMG.
5to1 also includes a management team with over 200 years of senior officer Internet leadership experience, the core of which came from Fox Interactive Media's executive staff. Heckman, Levinsohn and outgoing interclick CEO Mike Mathews will comprise the Board of Directors.
Jim Heckman, CEO, stated, "We've quietly built a media coalition on top of a first-to-market advertising platform that presents an opportunity for premium brands to reach the most valuable consumers. Our mission is to focus on the most important segment of the advertising ecosystem -- premium brands and media partnered in a true marketplace environment. We clearly value and empower branding over the algorithmic approach and our funding strategy syncs with the company's overall contrarian thesis by aligning with major media leaders as financial partners along with the public marketplace."
"This funding will enable us to demonstrate that publishers, when properly empowered, are far better equipped to understand, protect and manage their own advertising inventory than a conflicted computer," added Heckman. "We are laser focused on putting value back in the hands of those who have created it."
5to1 has formed an online advertising alliance of major media publishers built on a proprietary, publisher-controlled platform that ensures consistent pricing and quality while eliminating sales channel conflict. The 5to1 alliance offers top brand advertisers true premium inventory at mass scale, something that otherwise does not exist in the online advertising ecosystem today.
Tallahassee, FL 11/1/11 (StreetBeat) --Yahoo Inc (NASDAQ: YHOO), announced today it will buy online advertising technology firm interclick inc for $270 million in cash. The $9 a share offer represents a 22% premium over interclick shares’ closing price on Monday on Nasdaq. Yahoo shares fell 5.56% to $14.77 after the company unveiled the news, while shares of InterClick (NASDAQ: ICLK) soared 21% to $8.96. In a statement, Yahoo said InterClick would give the company a “unique data targeting capabilities, optimization technologies and new premium supply, as well as a team experienced in selling audiences across disparate sources of pooled supply.”