MarketShare Partners Announces Investment from Elevation Partners

LOS ANGELES & MENLO PARK, Calif. MarketShare Partners (MSP), the industry’s leading marketing analytics firm, today announced that private equity firm Elevation Partners has made a minority equity investment in the Company. The terms of the investment were not disclosed.

Privately held MarketShare Partners has developed a suite of proprietary software solutions that enables companies to determine how best to target the 21st Century consumer who, in this era of fragmentation, social media, search and DVRs, is harder to reach. MSP evaluates the key drivers of a company’s business, such as macro-economic factors, product innovation, industry and client-specific data as well as brand buzz to help them make smarter decisions regarding where to most effectively spend their marketing, sales and promotional dollars. By combining advanced analytics and the latest in statistical modeling, MSP’s technology helps companies improve the effectiveness of their sales and marketing strategies. MSP is the only company of its kind that is able to truly evaluate the effectiveness of search, display and social media and their impact on traditional forms of advertising, as well as their combined effects on tangible outcomes such as sales. Founded in 2005, MarketShare has helped companies of all sizes enhance their advertising and sales programs, including many of the world’s most recognizable brands such as Charles Schwab, Electronic Arts and Mercedes-Benz.

Commenting on Elevation’s investment, MarketShare Partners’ co-CEOs Wes Nichols and Jon Vein said, “Our partnership with Elevation Partners will clearly be a catalyst for our continued expansion. Given the current economic environment, our ability to help companies maximize their marketing efficiency and optimization, as well as overall resource allocation, gets timelier by the day. Elevation Partners’ expertise in media, marketing and entertainment makes them the right partner for us as we bring next generation technology to the world of marketing and media measurement – a world screaming for innovation.”

Ted Meisel, Senior Advisor at Elevation Partners and former CEO of Overture Services and President of Search Marketing at Yahoo! said, “With the fundamental shift in the media industry resulting in consumers receiving information through multiple new, non-traditional channels, marketing executives need to understand how to adapt their advertising and sales strategies to this fragmented environment. MarketShare’s innovative algorithms and software provides companies with detailed market insight and analysis that allows them to spend their sales and marketing dollars more effectively. We made this investment because we believe MarketShare’s game-changing technology positions the Company to take full advantage of the market opportunities and represents huge prospects for future growth. It also allows us to leverage this knowledge across our portfolio companies.”

Elevation’s capital infusion will be used to support continued growth, including the deployment of a suite of software solutions that generate specific recommendations around marketing allocation, as well as continued international expansion through organic and acquisitive growth.

Concurrent with the investment, Mr. Meisel will join MSP’s Board of Directors. Montgomery & Co. served as an advisor to MarketShare Partners on the transaction.

About MarketShare Partners

Co-founded by the world’s foremost academic in marketing effectiveness, Dr. Dominique Hanssens, marketing industry executive Wes Nichols and media executive Jon Vein, MarketShare Partners is now the leading marketing analytics firm that helps companies determine how best to reach the 21st Century consumer. MSP addresses a key market need by taking the guesswork out of knowing which types of media are working by giving marketers scientific proof to help them reallocate both traditional and new media spends. Serving global brands – including nearly half of the Fortune 50, MSP develops dynamic models that quantify interactions between business drivers that impact revenue, going well beyond traditional marketing mix analysis. MSP is the only company of its kind that understands the effects of search, display and social media in relation to traditional forms of media, as well as how they interact with each other to drive revenue for marketers. For more information, visit http://www.marketsharepartners.com.

About Elevation Partners

Elevation Partners is a $1.9 billion private equity firm that makes large-scale investments in market-leading media, entertainment, and consumer-related businesses where it can partner with management to enhance growth and profitability through a combination of strategic capital and operational insight. Its investment team has a unique combination of media, entertainment, and technology expertise and relationships; investing experience; and operating knowledge. Elevation’s five partners are Fred Anderson, former EVP and CFO of Apple; Bret Pearlman, former senior managing director of The Blackstone Group; Marc Bodnick, a founding principal of Silver Lake Partners; Roger McNamee, co-founder of Silver Lake Partners and Integral Capital Partners; and Bono, lead singer and co-founder of the rock band U2. For more information, visit http://www.elevation.com.

Source: MarketShare Partners