Internet Investing Anyone?

November 14th, 2007 by Jon Waraas

While checking my email this morning I noticed I got an email from a friend of mine Clark Landry. He once worked on Tagworld.com (Viacom invested in them about a year ago) and is now the CEO of an internet investment company called Hecta Media. Today is their first day on the London AIM exchange. I though his new adventure was very interesting - what his team basically does is purchase web properties that are turning a profit and roll them up within a public company.

Here is their new release:

Hecta Media Inc

(“Hecta Media” or “the Company”)

First day of dealing on AIM

The directors of Hecta Media Inc (AIM: HCTA), a web consolidator, are pleased to announce that all of the Company’s 162,266,456 Ordinary Shares have today been admitted for trading on AIM valuing the Company at £6.5 million.

Hecta Media is a British Virgin Islands (‘‘BVI’’) registered company whose purpose is to make broadly distributed investments in niche content web sites and vertically targeted, branded domains. Using a combination of Ordinary Shares and cash to make targeted acquisitions, the Company intends to build a portfolio of high-traffic websites monetized through search and display advertising. Hecta Media will focus its efforts on active investment in websites and domains established in the UK, continental Europe, and the United States. The websites in which Hecta Media intends to invest will typically be simple, profitable businesses with few employees and positive cash flow. Hecta Media aims to consolidate a number of such websites across a few specific verticals, with the purpose of creating advantages of scale in each vertical market. The Directors intend that Hecta Media will acquire sites by offering a combination of cash and Ordinary Shares to the owners of the sites, providing fungible assets to owners looking for a suitable exit strategy by which to realize the value of the businesses they have created. The Directors consider that current market conditions provide good opportunities for investment in a wide variety of suitable websites which can meet Hecta Media’s strategic objectives – the Company having recently raised GBP4.67 million.

Significant shareholders in the Company on admission are:
Frederick Krueger 15.41%
Libra Fund LP 12.33%
HSBC Global Custody Nominee (UK) Limited 9.24%
Angstrom Capital Limited 8.09%
Guy Elliott 7.7%
Bellone Investment Services Inc 7.7%
Clark Landry 6.16%
Rig III Fund Limited 6.16%
Libra Offshore Limited 3.08%

The Company’s Nominated Adviser and Broker is Beaumont Cornish Limited.

Commenting on the admission, Frederick Krueger, Executive Chairman, said:

“AIM provides an ideal marketplace for us to execute transactions and develop the business. We are therefore delighted to have been admitted onto the dominant international market in the emerging company arena.”

—ENDS—

Further Information:

Hecta Media Inc

Clark Landry (CEO) - T: + 1 310 570 3820

Beaumont Cornish Limited

Roland Cornish - Tel +44 (0)207 628 3396

gth media relations

Toby Hall / Jade Mamarbachi - T: +44 (0)207 153 8035

Or visit the group’s website at www.hectamedia.com

Notes to Editors

Directors

Frederick Robert Krueger (aged 46), Executive Chairman

Mr. Krueger is a serial entrepreneur, who has started seven successful software and internet companies. Mr. Krueger began his career as a proprietary fixed income trader at Salomon Brothers and Grenwich Capital from 1986 to 1992. He left finance in 1992 to start a graphic design software company, Fauve Software, which was acquired by Macromedia (Nasdaq: ADBE) in 1995. Following this, he started Random Noise, a Java tools provider, which was sold to Vignette (Nasdaq: VIGN) in 1997. In 1999, Mr. Krueger turned to the internet area, and started iwin.com, one of the 50th largest internet sites at the time. The company was merged with Uproar Inc. and sold to Vivendi Universal (NYSE V) in 2001. He also started Traffic Marketplace, a top five ad network in 2000; the company was also sold to Vivendi Universal. In 2002, he started Santa Monica Networks, a second ad network, which was sold to Kanoodle Inc in 2005. Since 2005, Mr. Krueger has started TagWorld, a social network that has received a substantial investment from Viacom Inc., and Euroclick, an internet ad network based in Munich, Germany that serves over 6 billion ad impressions a month. He is on the boards of both TagWorld and Adconion (Euroclick). Mr. Krueger received a BA in Mathematics from Cornell University and a PhD in Operations Research from Stanford University.

Clark William Landry (aged 30), Chief Executive Officer

Mr. Landry is an experienced entrepreneur having been involved in the establishment of at least seven companies with a focus on the online advertising and consumer internet sectors. Mr. Landry began his career in 1999 at Barrington Associates as an investment banking analyst and having gained some experience there left banking to be the director of marketing at iwin.com. At iwin.com he was responsible for managing a $15 million annual online marketing budget for this online games site. Mr. Landry was then an initial founder and investor into Traffic Marketplace and co-wrote the business plan for this online advertising network, which at the date of this Document is still a leading US advertising network. Mr. Landry also managed marketing and publisher relations for Traffic Marketplace. Traffic Marketplace was acquired by Uproar in 2000, which was subsequently sold to Vivendi Universal. Mr. Landry was co-founder and Vice President, Marketing from May 2002 to April 2005 of Santa Monica Networks, an online advertising network, which was sold to Kanoodle (now Seevast) in 2005. In May 2005 Mr. Landry cofounded and then managed the marketing and media buying efforts for TagWorld, a general social networking website prior to the sale of a minority stake in the company to Viacom. Mr. Landry was also a co-founding investor of Adconion (formerly Euroclick), a leading international advertising network. Mr. Landry is currently a non-executive director of Libra Media which develops and manages community websites, including its flagship property, CityMommy. CityMommy is a leading localized social networking site for mothers with a presence in Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, and New York. Mr. Landry is also currently a non-executive director of LateNightShots, which was established in 2006. LateNightShots is a social networking site focused on bars, clubs, and nightlife, and is the leading social networking site in the greater Washington DC area. Mr. Landry graduated from Yale University in 1999 with a BA in Economics.

David de Jongh Weill (aged 49), President and Executive Director

Mr. Weill started his professional career with Salomon Brothers in 1983 in derivative products sales and trading. He subsequently became active in proprietary trading for Salomon Brothers in International Fixed Income and Foreign Exchange. Mr. Weill left Salomon in 1989 to develop an international proprietary trading activity with Greenwich Capital Markets. Thereafter, in 1992, Mr. Weill developed his own fund management activity with funds under management growing to over $1.2 billion. From 1998, he has focused on private equity investment, predominantly in media and technology companies. Mr. Weill has acquired considerable experience in proprietary trading in international financial markets, investment management, corporate finance, and corporate governance. Mr. Weill holds a Bachelor of Business Administration, magna cum laude in International Business from the University of Georgia, a Masters of Business Administration from the London Business School, a Masters of Science in Law and Accounting from the London School of Economics and is currently reading for a Masters of Science in Decision Sciences at the London School of Economics. Mr. Weill was called to the Bar of England and Wales by the Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn.

Guy Elliott (aged 48), Deputy Chairman

Mr. Elliott is a co-founder of F3 Capital Management, LLC, an independent alternative asset management firm specialising in early stage financings in the natural resources field. Prior thereto, Mr. Elliott was president and co-founder of Croesus Capital Management, a specialist emerging markets hedge fund manager which grew over several years to about $800 million under management. He was a manager of proprietary trading at HSBC New York from 1992 to 1993 and worked for EBF & Associates as a portfolio manager from 1990 to 1992. He has also worked for Merrill Lynch International in New York focusing on fixed income securities and Cargill in London, Geneva and Minneapolis trading fixed income, foreign exchange and derivatives. Mr. Elliott is a director of Templar Minerals Limited, a natural resources investment company which is listed on AIM. Mr. Elliott has a BSc in Economics from the London School of Economics.

Michael Eric Mendelson (aged 41), Finance Director

Mr. Mendelson is a Senior Vice President with the investment bank of Ferris, Baker Watts, Inc. Prior to joining Ferris, Baker Watts, Mr. Mendelson served as founder and CEO of Align360, a general management and information technology consultancy which serves property and casualty insurers, banks and credit card issuers in North and South America, Europe and the Caribbean. Over the course of nearly 15 years, Mr. Mendelson provided the strategic direction to lead his firm to both rapid growth and industry leading levels of profitability. He sold his business to a publicly traded consultancy in 1997, but repurchased it in early 2001. The business was sold a second time to a large privately held consultancy in mid-2003. Mr. Mendelson was a recipient of the prestigious Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2002. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration degree from the University of Richmond and an MBA from the Wharton School. Mr. Mendelson has served on the executive committees of the University of Richmond’s Board of Associates.

I also had a very small interview with Clark via email:

Please briefly explain what your company does?

Hecta Media is a public investment company whose purpose is to acquire
and make investments in profitable niche content websites and domain
portfolios. We recently raised approximately $9.5 million and went
public today on the London AIM exchange:
http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=hcta.l.

What is the longterm goal with Hecta?

Our goal is to build a leading online media company through
acquisitions of premium websites and domains in select verticals.

What kinda websites are you looking to purchase? Advertisement company’s? paid memberships? e-commerce? blogs?

We’re generally looking to acquire profitable content websites and
domains. Our focus will initially be on advertising-supported
websites, but are open to looking at companies that generate revenue
through other means such as paid memberships and e-commerce.

Good luck Clark with your new adventure

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