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Company type | Creditor protection |
---|---|
Industry | Online marketing |
Founded | 2000Ottawa | in
Founder | Justin Shimoon |
Defunct | 2011 |
Fate | Acquired by Cactus Commerce |
Headquarters | , |
Website | www.sitebrand.com on Internet Archive |
Sitebrand was an online marketing company based in Gatineau, Quebec, Canada. [1] Sitebrand created technology which assisted its clients in expanding the number of purchases of customers who click on advertisement links. [2] [3] One of its biggest clients was Roots Canada. [1]
Sitebrand was founded in 2000 by Justin Shimoon, who had previously worked at Nortel. [4] Originally based in Ottawa, the company relocated to Gatineau in September 2002. [4] In August 2000, investors gave the company $1 million, of which 75% came from private an angel investors and 15% came from venture capital. [4] It created InSite, a software it offered for an annual fee of $20,000 to $60,000, that conducts a review of how people access websites and tries to use bargains to lure them. [5] In June 2008, the company was listed on the TSX Venture Exchange and had 40 employees. [6]
In 2008, the company was acquired by Pretium Capital for $5.1 million in a reverse takeover. [1] In December 2008, Sitebrand partnered with email service provider Silverpop to enhance their email product offering to online marketers. [7]
In 2010, Sitebrand obtained creditor protection. [8] Chris Corman, who had taken over as CEO from Shimoon in 2009, resigned. [9] The company had difficulty becoming profitable over the years. [9] While Corman had initially been able to increase sales and decrease expenses, by December 2010 experienced substantial losses in its revenue. [9] During the Great Recession, the company laid off employees. [10]
On February 17, 2011, Cactus Commerce acquired all assets of Sitebrand.com. [11] On October 24, 2011, Sitebrand formally changed its name to Marchwell Ventures. It raised approximately $1 million in a private placement. It transferred its shares from the TSX Venture Exchange to the NEX. [12]