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Say Media (formerlyVideoEgg) is a technology and advertising firm. The company provides a publishing platform (Tempest) to professional publishers and sells advertising across that platform and extended network of sites. Say Media has offices in San Francisco, Portland, NY, London, Montreal, Toronto, Chicago, and Detroit and isprivately held.
Say Media was formed when VideoEgg (a video advertising company) bought Six Apart (a technology company that created Moveable Type and TypePad). VideoEgg wasfounded in early 2005 whenYale University graduates David Lerman, Matthew Sanchez and Kevin Sladek were making video software. At the time, the three were involved in asocial venture matching non-profit organizations that neededpublic service announcements with a nationwide network of digital filmmakers and editors.[1][2]
Lerman, Sanchez and Sladek created tools to manage web video made with the wide range of available devices, editors, encoders, and players.
As their business matured they began to focus onmonetization, they found an opportunity invideo advertising in online video and onlinesocial networking services. In May, 2008 the company officially discontinued video hosting services to focus entirely on its online advertising network.[3]
In June 2008, VideoEgg and one of its partner websites,hi5, were sued in the United States byEMI recording labels and music publishers. The plaintiffs alleged that the services were liable forcopyright infringement due to videos uploaded by hi5 users through the VideoEgg application, and soughtinjunctions against the allegedly infringing activity.[4]
VideoEgg acquiredSix Apart in 2010, and renamed itself Say Media.[5] It soldMovable Type and the Six Apart name to Infocom, a Japanese information technology company; Say Media retainedTypePad.[6][7] As a result of this transaction, the headquarters of Six Apart is now Tokyo, Japan.[8]
Say Media acquired the websitesDogster,ReadWriteWeb,POPcast Communications, andRemodelista over the past several years.[9][10][11] It also launchedxoJane, with editor Jane Pratt, xoVain, its beauty-centric counterpart, andGardenista, a sister site of Remodelista. In 2013, the company divested these assets to focus on the Tempest platform and advertising operations. Say Media subsequently sold Dogster & Catster, ReadWriteWeb, Remodelista and Gardenista, which as of early 2015 all operate independently or under new ownership.
Say Media is a privately owned company. As of 2010, VideoEgg had conducted fourrounds of funding, raising over $30 million. Investors includeFirst Round Capital,WPP Group, August Capital, Focus Ventures andMaveron.[12][13][14]
The company currently builds, maintains and provides Tempest, a publishing platform, to professional publishers in exchange for managing their unsold inventory.As of October 2016, 50 sites including Maxim, Rachael Ray, Climbing, Bio, and Fashionista were using the platform.Say's in-house design team (located in Portland, Oregon) creates display ad units and the customoverlay using advertiser's creative assets.[15]
In July 2008, VideoEgg announced several new capabilities to their ad network. These include offering advertisers increased ad features and functionalities, such as:
Publishers are able to integrate VideoEgg's AdPlatform. VideoEgg then serves the ads, which are designed to fit in any space and publishers receive payment every time a user engages with one of the VideoEgg ad units on the publisher's site.
The company successfully filed a lawsuit for trademark infringement against an Israeli company (associated with the Komodia library) also calling itself Say Media. That company has since changed names.[citation needed]