The Israeli press reports that JP Morgan acquired a $100
million stake in Conduit at a $1.3 billion valuation. JPM bought
remaining shares held by early Conduit investor Yozma, completing
Yozma’s exit from Conduit following its recent sale of $39 million of
stock at an identical valuation to private equity group W. Capital
Partners.
Conduit’s cash cow is its toolbar, which the company says has been
used by more than 200,000 sites, including MLB.com and Miniclip, to
reach 250 million users. When those users run a search via the
publisher’s toolbar, Conduit receives a volume and ad performance payout
from either Microsoft’s Bing (in the US) or Google (outside the US).
Israel’s The Marker reports Conduit generated $200 million in
profit last year on $500 million revenue, but I think those numbers are
somewhat exaggerated. In any case, Conduit right now is indisputably a
cash machine. But Shilo knows it can’t stay that way in its current
form.
More about Conduit: conduit.com
