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What’s life for David Moore, chief executive of 24/7 Real Media, one year
and two years to the day after WPP agreed to acquire the company? (If you’re
counting days, 2008 was a Leap Year.)
When 24/7 was a stand alone publicly-held company — before the WPP
acquisition — Moore estimates he spent about 35 to 40 percent of his time
on activities related to investor relations.
Now, he says he devotes the extra time collaborating with his WPP
colleagues and meeting with clients. When I met with him today in NYC,
he had just returned from a quick trip to Korea where had played golf with a
client. (OK, so he’s suffers from a little jet lag today, but nothing that caffeine can’t fix.)
Last year at this time, Real Media generated 50 percent of its quarterly
revenue from its search solution, 36 percent from its media operations, and
8 percent from its technology solutions.
Since the acquisition, 24/7’s search consultancy was moved to WPP’s GroupM
subsidiary, while the 24/7 unit licenses its search technology to GroupM and
Dentsu.
While Moore said he cannot divulge specific revenue projections, he
anticipates 24/7’s media operations business will see healthy growth. While
it currently has clients in the U.K. and France, Moore has his eye on
expanding to at least five to 10 other European markets in the next three to
five years. It also sees opportunities for growth in Asia and Australia.
What does he think of the latest reports that Microsoft wants to acquire a
part of Yahoo’s business? Microsoft, he points out, is one of WPP’s top 10
clients. Plus, Nicolle Pangis, 24/7’s VP, product manager, pointed out
that WPP last week announced plans to develop a trading platform that will
link to Yahoo’s ad exchange, and integrate targeting technology from 24/7
Real Media.
And has any of DoubleClick’s customers defected to 24/7 after the Google
acquisition? Moore said he hasn’t seen anyone jump ship — but isn’t
surprised because technology contracts typically last three years unless
they include a change of ownership clause.
