Business.com

Quality 0.50 · 1 view · Updated 2 months ago

Digital advertising company

title: "Business.com" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["internet-search-engines", "web-directories", "privately-held-companies-based-in-los-angeles", "internet-properties-established-in-1999"] description: "Digital advertising company" topic_path: "arts/film" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business.com" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Digital advertising company ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox company"]

FieldValue
nameBusiness.com Media, Inc.
logoBusiness.com Logo.svg
typeCorporation
foundation
locationLos Angeles, California, U.S.
industryPerformance Based Marketing
homepage
::

| name = Business.com Media, Inc. | logo = Business.com Logo.svg | type = Corporation | slogan = | foundation = | location = Los Angeles, California, U.S. | industry = Performance Based Marketing | homepage = | parent = | num_employees =

Business.com is a digital media company and B2B web destination which offers various performance marketing advertising, including lead generation products on a pay per lead and pay per click basis, directory listings, and display advertising. The site covers business industry news and trends for growth companies and the B2B community to stay up-to-date, and hosted more than 15,000 pieces of content as of November 2014. Business.com operates as a subsidiary of the Purch Group since being acquired in 2016.

Having sold their brands to Future, Purch's existing B2B assets later reorganised into Business.com.

History

Business.com, Inc. was founded in 1999 by Jake Winebaum, previously chairman of the Walt Disney Internet Group; and Sky Dayton, founder of Earthlink, Boingo Wireless, and Helio, among others. Around that time, the Business.com domain name was purchased from Marc Ostrofsky by Winebaum's eCompanies Ventures for $7.5 million. In addition to investment by eCompanies, early funding in the amount of $61 million was provided in 2000 by Pearson PLC, Reed Business Information, McGraw Hill, and others. In its initial form, Business.com aimed to be the Internet's leading search engine for small business and corporate information.

Business.com struggled through the Dot-com bubble years. The company retooled beginning in 2002 after massive layoffs and a new focus on developing a pay for performance ad network model. In April 2003, the company achieved profitability, and on November 8, 2004, the company secured an additional $10 million in venture capital funding from Benchmark Capital.

Having purchased the domain in 2001, Business.com launched Work.com on October 9, 2006. The site included business how-to guides contributed by the small business community. Work.com was sold in March 2012 and is now a corporate performance management platform owned by Salesforce.

Then on July 26, 2007, after beating out Dow Jones & Company, the New York Times Company, IAC/InterActiveCorp, and News Corp, print and interactive marketing company R.H. Donnelley Corporation announced plans to acquire Business.com in a deal valued at $345 million. The deal closed on August 23, 2007.

In June 2009, R.H. Donnelley filed for bankruptcy. The company emerged from Chapter 11 as Dex One Corporation on February 1, 2010. In February 2011, Resource Nation acquired the brand and associated assets of Business.com. JMI Equity provided funding in support of the transaction.

In January 2013, the appointment of Tony Uphoff as CEO was announced. In March 2013, Business.com launched a site refresh, new logo and new suite of products. New content management, analytics, and big data platforms were introduced in August 2014.

In June 2016, Business.com was acquired by Purch Group. When Future plc acquired Purch's consumer properties in 2018, Business.com was not included and was instead spun off as an independent company.

Products

Business.com serves advertisers looking to reach small and mid-sized business. Advertising customers include some of the largest B2B brands in B2B such as Intel, Salesforce, Marketo, ADP, Sprint as well as smaller brands. Its suite of digital marketing products include display advertising, pay per click, email marketing, content marketing demand generation, and lead generation for sales ready leads.

In December, 2014, the company launched LENS, a lead expansion and nurturing service, as part of their demand generation product set.

Awards and recognition

Business.com has been named as a Best Place to Work by the San Diego Business Journal in 2012, 2013, 2014. In October 2014, the website was ranked #1 on Inc.com's '50 Websites Your Startup Needs to Succeed'.

References

References

  1. (2013-10-02). "10 Common Link Building Problems". Search Engine Watch.
  2. Teresa Novellino. "Purch Picks up Business.com, Tapping into Business of Small Business". New York Business Journal.
  3. Rose, Frank. (March 2006). "Sky Dayton Gets Mobile". Wired.
  4. (2008-06-11). "One Word Domain Name Sales Reach Record Levels". PR.com.
  5. Wingfield, Nick. (1997-06-04). "Domain name fetches record price".
  6. (2004-11-08). "Business.com Secures New Round of Financing; Growth Potential of Business Search Drives $10 Million Investment from Benchmark Capital". Business Wire.
  7. Loftus, Peter. (2004-12-08). "Something ventured: Renewed VC Interest In A Pricey Name". business.com (Dow Jones Newswires).
  8. (2001-11-28). "Dot-Com Layoffs and Shutdowns". The Wall Street Journal Online.
  9. Siklos, Richard. (2008-05-02). "Business.com's winding road". CNNMoney.com.
  10. (2001-04-16). "Business.com Launches Version 2.0 with Enhanced Content and Features".
  11. Pham, Alex. (2001-03-31). "Work.com Is Sold for Mere $500,000 to Business.com".
  12. (2006-10-09). "Work.com launches to help small businesses tackle their most important business tasks". Business.com.
  13. Allemann, Andrew. (2012-03-15). "Did Salesforce.com acquire Work.com domain name?".
  14. Allemann, Andrew. (2012-07-30). "Salesforce.com buys Work.com domain name".
  15. Rao, Leena. (2012-09-19). "Salesforce Debuts Rypple-Powered Work.com To Help Companies Manage Talent, Partners With Facebook".
  16. "Business.com, Inc.". BusinessWeek.
  17. (2007-07-26). "Business.com Sells for $350 Million".
  18. (June 2, 2009). "Business.com Owner Files for Bankruptcy". Domain Name Wire.
  19. Hosford, Christopher. (February 2, 2010). "R.H. DONNELLEY EMERGES FROM BANKRUPTCY AS DEX ONE".
  20. Mickey, Bill. (2013-01-15). "Tony Uphoff Named CEO". FOLIO Mag.
  21. (March 2013). "Business.com blog". Business.com.
  22. (2014-08-11). "Business.com Press Release on Site Transformation and B2B Digital Media". Business.com.
  23. Ha, Anthony. (June 22, 2016). "Purch acquires small-business site Business.com".
  24. Guaglione, Sara. (September 7, 2018). "Future PLC Acquires Purch's B2C Brands, B2B Division Renamed Business.com".
  25. "Reach in-market buyers at all stages".
  26. (August 2014). "San Diego Business Journal 2014 Best Places to Work". SDBJ.com.
  27. Hendricks, Drew. (October 2, 2014). "50 Websites Your Startup Needs to Succeed". Inc.com.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::

internet-search-enginesweb-directoriesprivately-held-companies-based-in-los-angelesinternet-properties-established-in-1999