Clearspring Acquires AddThis to Create the World’s Largest Sharing Service for the Web
Company's Reach Now Comparable to 7th Largest Web Property
McLean, Va. & Princeton, N.J. - Sept. 30, 2008 — Clearspring Technologies, the leading widget network connecting publishers and advertisers to audiences on the social Web, today announced the acquisition of AddThis, the No. 1 bookmarking and content sharing service on the Internet. Together, Clearspring and AddThis will serve over 20 billion views per month and reach more than 200 million unique visitors, creating the most widely used set of content sharing services on the Web.
Both companies achieved market leadership by delivering distinct content sharing products - AddThis providing the market's most widely used tool for bookmarking and sharing Web pages, and Clearspring as the company that introduced the concept of point-and-click tools enabling users to easily move content between Web sites. Together the companies will offer the most comprehensive set of sharing tools available - becoming the de facto universal content sharing platform for Web publishers and end users. The collective footprint of the combined entity will reach a worldwide audience comparable to the 7th largest Web property.
"The Internet is becoming the backbone for digital communications - an essential part of our everyday lives," said Ted Leonsis, chairman of the board at Clearspring. "With the acquisition of AddThis, Clearspring is now at the forefront of that evolution, connecting digital content publishers and consumers via a single set of universally recognizable tools that enable people to easily communicate with content."
The sharing of Web sites, services, and other digital content as a way of communicating is growing in popularity, especially among the rapidly expanding social networking segment. In August 2008, comScore estimated that social networking users comprised more than 65 percent of the Web's 860 million unique monthly visitors. With today's news, the combined companies' sharing services provide publishers with a comprehensive toolset, enabling them to make any content - whether a Web page or a standalone application - easily sharable to other Web sites, a user's desktop, or a mobile device.
"AddThis has pioneered the easiest-to-use sharing experience, enabling users to quickly save and share Web pages. This experience has propelled the AddThis sharing button to become the biggest little thing on the Web - installed on hundreds of thousands of sites around the world," said Hooman Radfar, Clearspring's chief executive officer. "We are committed to this paradigm and intend to make our combined offerings synonymous with 'sharing made simple.'"
Clearspring and AddThis enable people to easily share content with trusted friends and social groups across popular sites like Facebook, MySpace, iGoogle, Twitter and Digg. Compelling content often shared includes Web pages, videos, movie trailers, news, sports updates, trivia quizzes, games, music, and more, and can be shared across more than 80 social networking, blogging and bookmarking services.
"With its highly scalable infrastructure and proven management team, Clearspring brings tremendous value to AddThis," said Dom Vonarburg, chief executive officer of AddThis. "We share their vision for empowering users and publishers and look forward to providing the industry's standard sharing platform as we build out the next generation of Clearspring products."
About AddThis
AddThis is the No. 1 bookmarking and sharing button on the Internet. AddThis has become the standard button for bookmarking and sharing. The AddThis button spreads content across the Web by making it easy for visitors to bookmark and share it with other people. AddThis is on hundreds of thousands of Web sites including TIME Magazine, Oracle, TechCrunch, Freewebs, Entertainment Weekly, MySpace, Zappos, FOX, ABC, and Glamour, just to name a few. Each month the button is displayed across the Web over 20 billion times.
About Clearspring
Clearspring Technologies is the leader in connecting publishers, services and advertisers to audiences on the social web. Ranked #1 by comScore, Clearspring’s AddThis platform enables leading publishers like AOL, Demand Media, MySpace, and NBC to distribute and track digital content such as web pages, widgets, and videos to social networks, bookmarking sites, blogs, and more. AddThis is used by over 1.5 million unique domains reaching over 1 billion unique users monthly. Clearspring's Audience Platform leverages aggregate data from AddThis to allow advertisers and publishers to reach these audiences by influence, interest and intent in real-time. Founded in 2004, the company is privately held. Visit www.clearspring.com.