According to a report from Business Insider, Rubicon Project is closing down the division it created after acquiring Toronto-based Chango for $162 million ($122 million USD). It is also shuttering its Toronto office.
At the time intent marketing platform Chango was acquired in April 2015, Rubicon founder and CEO Frank Addante said, “We’re acquiring Chango, because Chango brings access to $35 billion of intent-marketing spend to Rubicon marketplace.” The company was named Canada’s fastest-growing company by Deloitte and widely rumoured to consider an IPO.
More recently, in a Q3 earnings call, Addante said that hindsight is 20/20. “Chango didn’t work out exactly how we expected. Yet, we are better for doing it than not. Our order business generated a lot from that. But we probably wouldn’t have invested in that asset in the way that we did.”
In an SEC filing, Rubicon said that it is shutting its intent marketing business, and has instead entered into a partnership with digital marketing platform IgnitionOne. IgnitionOne will take on Rubicon’s intent marketing clients, as well as any Rubicon Project intent marketing sales staff that want to switch.