FM Buys Colorado Blog Tools Provider Lijit

Federated Media has acquired Lijit Networks, a provider of search and analytics tools for blogs.

Located in Boulder, CO, Lijit focuses on small businesses looking to get more out of their blogging and social media efforts. It was founded in 2006 and says it works with more than 70,000 online publishers. The acquisition should not only provide FM with tools for its own network of small blogs but help provide inroads to other small-business publishers.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Lijit will keep its name and headquarters. CEO Todd Vernon will become EVP of technology at FM and COO Walter Knapp will become SVP of platform revenue. Both will report directly to FM’s CEO, Deanna Brown.

This is the first purchase for FM following the company’s late 2010 shopping spree. In November it acquired blog network Foodbuzz and woman-oriented social network BigTent, just months after striking a marketing deal with blogging network Clever Girls Collective and buying semantic search technology firm TextDigger.