Los Angeles based Demand Media has acquired social media platform creator Pluck Inc, the companies announced today.
Dave Panos, founder and CEO of Pluck, seemed excited about the acquisition. "I think we really found a great partner. It's a great outcome for everyone here, and our customers seem to be pretty excited about it as well. So it's a good story all the way around," Panos said. "This is what you work for. You work your butt off for 4-5
years for a fun day like today."
Pluck, based in Austin, Texas, begin in 2003 as an RSS plugin for the web browser, but evolved to become a social media platform with the ability to host news stories, blogs, videos, and comments. Clients include many large press outfits like Conde Nast, The Washington Post, and Gannett/USA Today. (Disclosure: Wired.com is owned by Conde Nast.)
Demand Media was founded in May, 2006, by Richard Rosenblatt, former CEO of Intermix, the company which incubated social network MySpace. Rosenblatt orchestrated the sale of MySpace to Fox Interactive Media, a division of News Corp.
Pluck has raised $17 million since its launch in 2003. Austin Ventures and Mayfield Fund participated in a $10 million Series A while news outfit Reuters invested $7 million in Pluck's product in October of 2006.
The purchase price was not disclosed, but reports suggest that the deal was worth $50-75 million.
