The dMarc Brothers: Where Are They Now
This story was written by Rafat Ali.
In case you were wondering if the Steelberg brothers, the founders of online radio ad firm dMarc Broadcasting that Google bought in 2006, ever got their big earnout, well, that we don't know. We doubt they made the full $1.1 billion earnout--over and above the $102 cash consideration--which was supposed to be paid out based on targets achieved by December this year. Google has mentioned regularly in its filings that it has yet to realize any significant revenues from this acquisition, though that "significant" amount has not been disclosed.
But what we can tell you is that the two, who left Google in Feb last year, are at it again, this time in digital sports and entertainment arena: Ryan Steelberg (CEO) and Chad Steelberg (CTO) are the co-founders of Brand Affinity Technologies (BAT), a new advertising company that is a "powerful new advertising platform for brand advertising, with an initial focus on sports and entertainment", says their new website. Also part of the senior exec team is Scott Bogdan as EVP of operations...he was also at dMarc and then later at Google, managing the audio ads business and served as head of media and affiliate operations.
As to what the new company does, it describes in a bit more details on a sports conference website: "BAT is a new technology-driven media service that enables advertisers to identify and secure rights managed Athlete and Celebrity talent on a local and national basis. With these tools, advertisers of all sizes can more easily and cost effectively launch, track and optimize online endorsement campaigns that increase consumer awareness and recall, and break through the media clutter." In simple words, something to do with online sports/athletes management and sponsorships
The brothers are serial entrepreneurs, who founded AdForce and sold it for $500 million in stock and Broadband Digital Group before forming dMarc and selling it to Google (NSDQ: GOOG). dMarc was formed in in 2004 when software developer Scott Studios and dMarc Networks were combined.
By Rafat Ali