Millennial Media Tries Cashing In on Mobile Ad Boom With IPO
Millennial Media, the mobile ad network that has been loudly declaring its interest in a public offering for the past few years, has pulled the trigger.
The planned IPO is notable because it’s the first time that a pure-play mobile ad company has gone public. Most of Millennial’s other competitors have been acquired instead, most notably by Apple and Google, the company’s primary competitors.
The company’s S-1 reveals that the start-up lost $7.1 million on sales of $47.8 million in 2010, and $417,000 on sales of $69.1 million in the first nine months of last year. Millennial’s business is focused on selling advertising that runs on mobile apps, and it says it reaches 200 million users worldwide; in December it processed 40 billion ad impression.
The Baltimore-based company says it most recently gave itself an enterprise value of $305 million. That was back in September 2011, when it granted a block of options. The company’s primary backers are New Enterprise Associates, Charles River Ventures, Columbia Capital and Bessemer Venture Partners.
