CityGrid Media Acquires BuzzLabs

WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif., and SEATTLE, May 5, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- CityGrid Media, an operating business of IAC (NASDAQ:IACI), today announced the acquisition of Seattle-based BuzzLabs, a leading social media monitoring and sentiment analysis platform that creates valuable content for publishers and consumers, and helps local businesses monitor their presence across the web. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed. The acquisition gives CityGrid the immediate ability to aggregate and analyze millions of pieces of content across its content and ad network—including reviews, articles, blog posts, check-ins, Likes and countless other real time streams of user generated content—producing an enormous repository of business sentiment, consumer insight and trending data for its publishers and million-plus merchants.

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"With the explosion of local, user-generated content on the Web, it is imperative our network of publishers has real-time tools to acquire new content and make sense of it for users in a way that's immediately valuable to them," said Jay Herratti, CEO of CityGrid Media. "By adding BuzzLabs to the CityGrid® offering, we are able to provide our publishers with relevant, real-time content and new local data that consumers now rely on to make their decisions."

The BuzzLabs acquisition also rounds out CityGrid Media's merchant product offering to provide reputation management to local merchant advertisers. The BuzzLabs business dashboard will be integrated into the CityGrid Media Ad Center, enabling local merchants to access BuzzLabs' social monitoring and analysis tools to better manage online reputations.

"We share CityGrid's vision to make online content more useful; extending it to both publishers and advertisers, and helping consumers make more informed business decisions," said Philip Lee, Founder and CEO of BuzzLabs. "The massive reach of CityGrid, combined with the deep social insight our technology provides, will now help local publishers and advertisers better understand and engage consumer audiences anywhere and anytime."  

BuzzLabs technology will be integrated into the CityGrid platform over the next three to six months.

About CityGrid Media

CityGrid Media is an online media company that connects web and mobile publishers with local advertising organizations by linking them through CityGrid®, its local content and advertising network. CityGrid Media also owns and operates leading local consumer properties including Citysearch, Insider Pages and Urbanspoon. CityGrid Media is an operating business of IAC (NASDAQ: IACI). For more information, visit www.citygridmedia.com

About BuzzLabs

BuzzLabs is a leading social media monitoring and analysis platform that helps local businesses manage and monitor their presence across the social web, including micro-blogs, social networks, forums and media sharing sites. BuzzLabs was founded in 2009 by former Microsoft employees Philip Lee and Dou Shen. For more information, visit www.buzzlabs.com

About IAC

IAC operates more than 50 leading and diversified Internet businesses across 30 countries... our mission is to harness the power of interactivity to make daily life easier and more productive for people all over the world. To view a full list of the companies of IAC please visit our website at www.iac.com.

Media Contact:

Jenny Davis
Dotted Line Communications for CityGrid Media
(925) 935-2558 or [email protected]

SOURCE CityGrid Media