Advertising Com

Workers at Advertising.com in Baltimore will be eligible to participate in a voluntary buyout program that its parent company, AOL LLC, is planning next month as part of a larger effort to cut one-third of its work force, or 2,500 positions. Advertising.com, which is AOL's online advertising network, employs about 400 people at the Tide Point office complex in South Baltimore. Time Warner Inc. is spinning off AOL, a one-time Internet giant, on Dec. 9, and the company will be accepting volunteers to leave between Dec. 4 and 11. AOL, which is based in New York City, has said that if it does not get enough volunteers, it will resort to involuntary layoffs.

It is fitting that the next Baltimore Startup Weekend -- where entrepreneurs and coders and designers come together to launch companies -- is at the headquarters of Advertising.com. Advertising.com is one of the biggest startups to ever come out of -- er, stay -- in Baltimore . Maybe it's office at the Tide Point complex in Locust Point will help give birth to another monster tech hit over the weekend of Sept. 28. (At: 1020 Hull St., Baltimore, MD). So what's Startup Weekend about?

It is fitting that the next Baltimore Startup Weekend -- where entrepreneurs and coders and designers come together to launch companies -- is at the headquarters of Advertising.com. Advertising.com is one of the biggest startups to ever come out of -- er, stay -- in Baltimore . Maybe it's office at the Tide Point complex in Locust Point will help give birth to another monster tech hit over the weekend of Sept. 28. (At: 1020 Hull St., Baltimore, MD). So what's Startup Weekend about?

There's so much happening in Baltimore these days that my little ol' tech blog can't keep up with it. Here's what happened this week, and what's coming up that you should know about: 1. Tech Parents can party: We held the second bi-monthly Baltimore Tech Parents happy hour event on Tuesday night, at Heavy Seas Alehouse . The topic was "disruptive online education. " The guest speakers were Susan Magsamen, of Curiosityville.com, and Burck Smith, CEO of StraighterLine.com. The discussion was great.

Fewer than 50 workers are expected to be laid off this week from Advertising.com, a major Baltimore-based subsidiary of AOL Inc., as part of a change in strategy for the Internet giant, according to company officials. AOL spun off from Time Warner Inc. last month and is trying to transform itself primarily into a producer of online advertising and editorial content. AOL bought Time Warner, based in New York City, in 2001 in an acquisition that is now widely regarded as one of the worst business deals in history.

Advertising.com Inc., the Baltimore company that was bought two years ago by America Online Inc., named a new president yesterday and announced that the company's founders were taking a leave of absence. Lynda M. Clarizio, who was an executive vice president at AOL, was named president of Advertising.com effective immediately. She has worked at AOL for seven years, and was "the driving force behind AOL's acquisition of Advertising.com," the company said in a news release. Founded in 1998 by Owings Mills brothers John and Scott Ferber, Advertising.

Baltimore-based Advertising.com is launching a venture to identify, test and measure the most effective advertising methods in the emerging mobile commerce arena. Called the Wireless Advertising Marketing and Measurement Initiative, or WAMMI, the venture is designed to offer insight into audience behavior and acceptance regarding such advertising. "The convergence of wireless, the Internet and ad-serving technologies has created a rare opportunity for marketers to leverage the most effective form of media available: personal communication," said Peter Daboll, president and chief operating officer of Advertising.

AOL, the company that introduced millions of people to the Internet, has tried to reinvent itself many times. The latest effort - like those before it - doesn't seem to be going very well. On Tuesday, Jeffrey L. Bewkes, president and chief executive of Time Warner Inc., AOL's parent company, acknowledged weakness in the business and said he was open to combining AOL with another company - "whatever configuration makes it the strongest and the most valuable." But he may have been soft-pedaling what seems to be an increasingly troublesome situation at AOL, which has bet its future on a new strategy of selling advertising across the Internet and spent more than $1 billion on related acquisitions.

Under Armour is to announce today that it will buy the Tide Point waterfront office complex in Locust Point to serve as a corporate campus, cementing the international sports apparel company's home in Baltimore. The company now occupies nearly half of the 400,000-square-foot Tide Point complex, but for several years it has been on the hunt for a campus, a feature boasted by rival Nike and other sports companies. Under Armour's search has sent executives across the country to study campuses maintained by firms such as Quicksilver, PacSun, Google and Intuit.

Fewer than 50 workers are expected to be laid off this week from Advertising.com, a major Baltimore-based subsidiary of AOL Inc., as part of a change in strategy for the Internet giant, according to company officials. AOL spun off from Time Warner Inc. last month and is trying to transform itself primarily into a producer of online advertising and editorial content. AOL bought Time Warner, based in New York City, in 2001 in an acquisition that is now widely regarded as one of the worst business deals in history.

The brothers behind the launch of Advertising.com continue to plug away at their online video advertising business, called Videology Group, recently raising another round of investment, this time $13.1 million . Update : A company spokeswoman told me that the SEC filing disclosing the $13.1 million is actually tied to the company's acquisition of mobile data management platform Collider Media. This was Videology Group's first acquisition, as covered here . I don't believe the purchase price of the Collider acquisition was ever disclosed, and it's unclear how much of that $13.1 million stated in the SEC filing was funds used for the deal.

I am no longer a Baltimore TechBreakfast virgin. This morning, I trekked out of the house early, leaving my wife to fend for herself with our three little kids. I waited in ridiculous downtown Baltimore traffic, but finally made it the Advertising.com headquarters in Locust Point, where BTB was being held. ( Here's the Meetup information .) I got there, unfortunately, at the tail end of EchoPhi's presentation. (Sorry guys. Drop me a line at gus.sentementes@baltsun.com with a short summary of what you're building, please!

Baltimore TechBreakfasts have been going on each month for almost a year and I have yet to attend one. These events are part networking, part "learn about new startups," part "promote yourself over bagels and coffee. " They start a little early -- 8 a.m. -- and I've always been busy getting my three kids out the door and to daycare. But this Wednesday's event is on my calendar. It's an ambitious program that entrepreneur Ron Schmelzer, BTB organizer, has put together. Unfortunately for the non-RSVP'ed, it's a full event.

Under Armour is hoping to double the size of its Baltimore headquarters to accommodate additional employees, a retail store and a company museum. The sports apparel company wants to build an additional 400,000 square feet at Tide Point, an office complex in the Locust Point neighborhood that the firm, which had rented there for years, bought earlier this year. The company envisions a 20,000-square-foot store opening in 2013, with offices and the museum to follow. Underground and surface parking are also planned.

Under Armour is to announce today that it will buy the Tide Point waterfront office complex in Locust Point to serve as a corporate campus, cementing the international sports apparel company's home in Baltimore. The company now occupies nearly half of the 400,000-square-foot Tide Point complex, but for several years it has been on the hunt for a campus, a feature boasted by rival Nike and other sports companies. Under Armour's search has sent executives across the country to study campuses maintained by firms such as Quicksilver, PacSun, Google and Intuit.

Advertising.com, an online advertising firm, is looking to hire again at its Baltimore headquarters after launching a major new product and as it recovers from a downsizing last winter instituted by its corporate parent, AOL Inc. The company expects to hire as many as 35 people this year, mainly in technology, global business operations, and advertising products and operations, executives said. The company, based in the Tide Point office complex in Locust Point, now has about 200 employees in Baltimore.

It was August 2006, and Scott Ferber was badly in need of a new idea. A few months earlier, he'd walked away from Advertising.com, the Baltimore business that he and his brother built and later sold to AOL for $435 million. Ferber stepped into the unknown without much of a plan for a second act, but then the entrepreneur gods smiled on him, just as he got off the JFX, and he was hit with an epiphany while driving in his car. Yesterday, Ferber launched the result: TidalTV.com, his new company and Web site that focuses on advertising-supported video online.

Siblings get eight years in homebuilding scheme 3 Two business partners who misused money intended for building new homes in Baltimore County were sentenced Friday to eight years in prison, with five of those years suspended, the state attorney general's office said. Walter Osborne Ely Jr., 46, and sister Kimberly Zahrey, 44, were also ordered to pay $188,768 to 19 victims after they get out. The state is pursuing a separate civil case against the siblings to try to get more money back.

Fewer than 50 workers are expected to be laid off this week from Advertising.com, a major Baltimore-based subsidiary of AOL Inc., as part of a change in strategy for the Internet giant, according to company officials. AOL spun off from Time Warner Inc. last month and is trying to transform itself primarily into a producer of online advertising and editorial content. AOL bought Time Warner, based in New York City, in 2001 in an acquisition that is now widely regarded as one of the worst business deals in history.

Fewer than 50 workers are expected to be laid off this week from Advertising.com, a major Baltimore-based subsidiary of AOL Inc., as part of a change in strategy for the Internet giant, according to company officials. AOL spun off from Time Warner Inc. last month and is trying to transform itself primarily into a producer of online advertising and editorial content. AOL bought Time Warner, based in New York City, in 2001 in an acquisition that is now widely regarded as one of the worst business deals in history.