Vibrant Appoints CFO Ahead of Possible IPO

Contextual advertising company Vibrant has hired a new chief financial officer, Jeff Babka, as it structures itself ahead of a potential initial public offering.

NEW YORK — September 27, 2010 (Brand Republic) — Babka joins Vibrant from the same role at global IT security company Sophos, where he was working on an IPO, before it was acquired by Apax Partners.

Babka also led NeuStar's $700m initial public offering and listing on the New York Stock Exchange on June 29, 2005, and $700m follow-on offering in December 2005.

Craig Gooding, chief commercial officer and co-founder of Vibrant, said: "The appointment of a world-class CFO gives us the ability to look into an IPO."

However, he said there were no immediate plans for a public offering, and added that the timing of the appointment is due to the scale of the company, which now boasts revenue of $100m, and its expansion across Europe and the US.

Vibrant, which aligns billions of words on the internet with relevant video, information, tools and advertising, works with clients including Microsoft, Unilever and AT&T.

The company has a network of more than 4,500 premium publishers, and claims to reach more than 170 million unique users per month.

About Vibrant
Vibrant is a world leader in contextual technology, aligning billions of words across the internet with relevant video, information, tools, and advertising. With over 4,000 premium publishers, reaching more than 170 million unique users per month (comScore 2010), Vibrant gives top brand marketers the opportunity to deliver highly targeted advertisements within premium Web content and offers publishers premium editorial tools to re-circulate users throughout their websites. The company, founded in 2000, has offices in London, New York, Detroit, Chicago, San Francisco, Paris and Hamburg. For more information, visit: www.vibrantmedia.com, www.vibrantmedia.co.uk, www.vibrantmedia.de, www.vibrantmedia.fr.