Rocket Fuel Inc.

Last updated
Rocket Fuel Inc.
Type Private
IndustryMarketing and Advertising
Founded2008;14 years ago (2008)
FoundersGeorge John, Richard Frankel, Abhinav Gupta
Headquarters,
US
Number of locations
20
Area served
North America, Europe, and Japan; 20,000 advertisers and 3,600 advertising agencies [2]
Key people
  • Randy Wootton, CEO [2]
  • Simon Hayhurst, GM
Number of employees
700+

Rocket Fuel was an ad technology company based in Redwood City, California. [3] It was founded in 2008 by alumni of Yahoo!. [3]

Rocket Fuel completed an initial public offering in September 2013. [4] The initial stock offering was $29 per share and reached a high of $59.95 per share when the stock opened. The stock closed at $56.10 per share on opening day, giving the company a value of $942.5 million. [5] By February 24, 2015, the stock had dropped to $9.63, or 86 percent below its record high and 67 percent below its IPO price. [6]

Rocket Fuel acquired the New York-based ad tech company [x+1] in August 2014 for $230 million. [7] [8] [9]

In 2017, the company was acquired by Sizmek, a private ad tech company owned by Vector Capital; one outcome of this was a retreat from public company status back to being a private company. [2]

In November 2017, Sizmek retired the brand Rocket Fuel.[ citation needed ]

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References

  1. Courtney Subramanian (March 17, 2014). "In marketing, embracing a world where data rules". CNN Money. Retrieved May 1, 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 Schubarth, Cromwell (18 July 2017). "One-time ad tech unicorn sells at 90% discount from IPO price" . Silicon Valley Business Journal . Retrieved 19 July 2017. Ad tech company Rocket Fuel is being acquired by for $125.5 million by Sizmek, a privately owned company in the same business owned by private-equity firm Vector Capital.
  3. 1 2 Sramana Mitra (21 October 2013). "Rocket Fuel's IPO Soars". Seeking Alpha. Retrieved 3 December 2013.
  4. "Rocket Fuel Exec Offers Reasons For Optimism About The Future Of Mobile Advertising". Adotas. 4 February 2014. Retrieved 9 March 2014.
  5. Brodie, Lee (13 November 2013). "Cramer: This stock is literally Rocket Fuel". CNBC . Retrieved 13 March 2015.
  6. Kilgore, Tomi (March 6, 2015) "11 stock bubbles that have already popped." Marketwatch. (Retrieved 6-11-2015.)
  7. Zach Rogers (5 August 2014). "Rocket Fuel To Buy [X+1] For Estimated $230M". ad exchanger. Retrieved 24 August 2014.
  8. Jordan Novet (5 August 2014). "Ad-tech player Rocket Fuel buys programmatic marketing company [x+1]". Venture Beat. Retrieved 24 August 2014.
  9. Garett Sloane (5 August 2014). "Rocket Fuel's Deal to Buy [x+1] Propels It Into Marketing Cloud Territory". Adweek. Retrieved 24 August 2014.