Mark Evans

Who’s Geosign? They’re Canadian..and Just Raised $160M

Guelph, Ont. is probably best known for Sleeman Breweries and being home to one of Canada’s leading veterinarian school, but it’s also where one of the Web’s most interesting and, perhaps, least known companies has its corporate headquarters. Geosign Corp. operates more than 180 Web sites that attract more than 35 million unique visitors a month. Some of its sites include Hockey.com, YourWedding101, FitnessGear101 and Golfcourses.com. What you’ll get if you visit of these sites is content and a healthy amount of relevant advertising.

If you haven’t heard about Geosign, that may change pretty soon after the company raised $160-million from American Capital Strategies, a publicly-traded asset manager that has $11-billion of assets under management. So what do you do with $160-million? Well, it looks like strategic acquisitions are definitely part of the plan so expect to see Geosign in the news a lot more going forward.

To get a better handle on Geosign, I did a quick interview with CEO Ted Hastings

Q: Geosign has a very low profile. Have I missed something or is this low approach on purpose?
A: It was by design so your viewpoint and knowledge of the company is consistent with the media in general. The company has operated in stealth mode for the seven years of its existence.

Q: Why has the company taken that approach?
A: It was the founders decision that this was the type of company they wanted to have. They wanted to keep their heads down against the business plan and grow the company without worrying about the marketing message or PR until the appropriate time.

Q: I take it this is the appropriate time?
A: I think at this point the cat is out of the bag. At the Traffic show in Las Vegas, it was the news of the conference and I imagine Geosign’s marketing efforts will ramp up from here on in.

Q: Can you tell me more about how Geosign operates?
A: Geosign does very well and make strategic investments in the publishing team. We have 230 people involved as editors, designer and development of the content across our Web sites with an overall objective to building a good consumer experiences, which translates into business results.

Q: Is everyone employed in Guelph?
A: We have two offices; one in Guelph and one in Barbados

Q: Geosign has a lot of money in the bank. What’s the plan?
A: It is a substantial raise in the market. We believe it is the largest financing for a private equity, single investor in the market in over four years. It does give us a war chest to make strategic acquisitions. We will continue to acquire to support the plan to build a good consumer experience by acquiring Web sites and online properties to support that initiative and allow us to move into new categories.

Q: Can you tell me a little about the company’s history?
A: It was started seven years ago by Tim Nye, who is still involved as chairman. His initial vision of the company was local search. Geosign’s growth has all been organic since its inception. I would estimate going forward half of the growth will company from strategic acquisitions and the other half organic.

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