Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Rubicon Project: LA's Next IPO?
Rubicon Project, the online advertising technology firm headed by serial entrepreneur Frank Addante, looks like it may just be the next Southern California company to file for an IPO, based on a number of executive appointments made Tuesday. Rubicon--which has widely been rumored to be in preparation for an IPO, among local executives--said Tuesday that it has named Greg Raifman as President of the firm, and Todd Tappin as COO and CFO. Raifman was most recently at LiveRail, and also founded Mediaplex; Tappin was most recently CEO at SocialVibe, and was founding CFO at Overture.
Rubicon Project's Addante was formerly Chief Technology Officer and a founder of L90, and was co-founder of StrongMail systems. Rubicon is venture backed by News Corporation, Clearstone Venture Partners, IDG Ventures Asia, Mayfield Fund, NBC Universal's Peacock Equity Fund and Jarl Mohn. Rubicon is not the only Southern California online advertising company apparently looking at an IPO bid; a number of sources say that fellow Pasadena ad technology firm OpenX might also have an IPO in the works. Southern California's technology industry has not had many IPOs in recent months; the last, big IPO of a local company, LegalZoom, was delayed in August of last year, with no clear signs of if and when that firm might reapproach the markets.