Crain's New York - March 18, 2013 - (Page 6)

THE Big Web wants a piece of Grab INSIDER BY MATTHEW FLAMM Yahoo, MSN, NBCUniversal and AOL are all kicking the tires of little-known Grab Media, according to sources, in a sign of the growing importance of online video. The Manhattan-based video syndication business, with revenue in 2012 of about $20 million, according to a person familiar with its finances, put itself on the block late last year. The largest independent player in the online video syndication category, Grab takes shortform videos from some 200 content providers—including Martha Stewart, Reuters and Yahoo—and distributes them across more than 4,500 partner sites whose audiences are the right match. Video in demand Grab takes a cut of the advertising revenue, the content producer gets wider distribution (and ad revenue), and Nibbledish.com, for instance, gets videos of cooking show Chow Ciao! from Yahoo lifestyle site Shine—plus ads from Walgreens and Verizon. Interest in Grab has stepped up in advance of next month’s Digital Content NewFronts, the showcase for online video that precedes the Video ad revenue at AOL shot up to $100 million in 2012 from $10 million two years earlier. AOL, MSN, NBC and Yahoo declined to comment on their interest in Grab. ‘In a very good place’ Online video still has a long way to go before it even approaches television’s $66 billion in yearly advertising sales. Media buyers say that online investment has been slowed by issues like transparency—guaranteeing that ads end up on appropriate sites—and the fact that there isn’t the same pressure to secure deals at the NewFronts that there is in the upfront television market. But online video doesn’t have to match TV to be an increasingly important addition to a brand’s overall advertising strategy, responds Mr. Bowles. Experts expect video syndicators and their venture-capital backers to look to consolidate in the coming years in order to offer advertisers even greater reach. “Digital video syndication is in a very good place,” said Mari Kim Novak, a former head of global marketing at Microsoft Advertising who is now a strategic adviser to the digital advertising industry, including Grab. “You’ll see more growth and acquisitions because of that.” Ⅲ A sign of the growing importance of online video Convenient access to major business hubs. Subways & Highways just blocks away. COMMERCIAL UNITS WITH FLEXIBLE SPACE. PREBUILT/BUILT TO SUIT www.bushterminal.com W H E R E B U S Iwww.bushterminal.com E S NESS LIV Industrial, Ofﬁce, Creative, Warehouse/Distribution, Manufacturing, Retail, and Technology. 866.361.0769 lease@bushterminal.com 6 | Crain’s New York Business | March 18, 2013 882 Third Avenue, Brooklyn by Andrew J. Hawkins newscom Video syndication firm draws interest from top players broadcast upfront presentations, where television networks show off their new prime-time programs to advertisers. According to All Things Digital, which first reported on Yahoo’s interest in Grab, industry insiders expect the company would fetch under $50 million. Grab is growing quickly. In January, it ranked 11th among online video content properties, with 29.9 million unique viewers, according to comScore. That was up from 12.1 million a year earlier. “If you’re going to play in this space, you either have to build [a syndication business] or buy it,” said Grab CEO Alvin Bowles. He added that Grab was on target to double its business for the fourth consecutive year, and credited its growth to an expanding video marketplace and the need for quality video among sites unable to produce their own. He declined to discuss a possible sale. U.S. digital video ad spending is projected to grow 41% in 2013, to $4.1 billion, and to reach $8 billion by 2016, according to eMarketer. For evidence of what a video syndication business can do for a company, observers point to AOL, which acquired New York-based 5min Media in 2010 and made it the core of the AOL On Network. ‘Mrs. Lhota on line one’ T he New York political world sat up and took notice last week when Republican mayoral candidate Joe Lhota (above) reported having raised $730,000 in two months, an impressive figure for a first-timer running in an overwhelmingly Democratic city. The strong start was testament to Mr. Lhota’s appeal as a probusiness manager à la Michael Bloomberg and Rudy Giuliani—his former boss who featured prominently in Mr. Lhota’s fundraising appeals. But it was also proof of the deep connections of his GOP fundraiser wife, Tamra, who along with former John McCain fundraiser Tamara Hallisey compose Mr. Lhota’s finance team. “She is a dynamo,” said John Cahill, a lawyer and former chief of staff to George Pataki. “She is pushing everybody in a nice, firm way to get out there and make the calls. It’s not just business for her; it’s personal.” Mrs. Lhota helped bag cash for all three of Mr. Giuliani’s mayoral campaigns. She once served on the board of NYC Public/Private Initiatives, which operated out of Mr. Giuliani’s office and raised private money for public projects. Other board members included Richard Grasso of the New York Stock Exchange, real estate magnate Jerry Speyer, New York Mets owner Fred Wilpon and former Deputy Mayor Peter Powers. Messrs. Powers and Wilpon donated to Mr. Lhota’s campaign, according to the latest filings. Other funders included Home Depot founder Kenneth Langone and his wife, Elaine, who both contributed the $4,950 maximum. Mayoral daughter Emma Bloomberg gave $1,000. Some business insiders speculated that Mr. Lhota’s fundraising haul signals that Council Speaker Christine Quinn, the current Democratic frontrunner, doesn’t have a lock on financial support from the private sector. So far, Ms. Quinn is the unofficial favorite of donors in the business community, having raked in about $800,000 from real estate sources alone. Others pondered whether Mr. Lhota’s strong start could help push Ms. Quinn more to the center of the political spectrum. Paid-sick-days rumble approaching Arguably no issue in recent memory has polarized the business and labor communities to the degree that paid sick leave has. Unions argue it’s about basic fairness toward workers; businesses say it’s a burden that ultimately will cost the city jobs. Those differences will be laid bare this Friday, when the City Council convenes its first hearing in three years on the bill. In the days leading up to the hearing, both sides are meeting to devise their communications strategy for an event that is sure to attract an avalanche of media attention. The Partnership for New York City, the Real Estate Board of New York and the five borough chambers of commerce met on March 11 at REBNY’s midtown office to put the finishing touches on their list of attendees at the hearing and to hone their message. Several more powwows are planned before the hearing, a source said. Supporters are taking a different tack, continuing to apply pressure to Council Speaker Quinn, who has refused to allow a vote on the bill. The goodgovernment group Common Cause released a letter, signed by 30 council members, lambasting Ms. Quinn for bottling up the bill. African-American activists sent out a missive blaming the speaker for denying a workplace benefit to millions of minority laborers. And anonymous Web pranksters sent out an email linking to a copycat version of Ms. Quinn’s campaign website that falsely claims she now favors the bill. Crain’s Insider, our award-winning politics newsletter, is now a blog. Read it every day at www.crainsnewyork.com/insider http://www.Nibbledish.com http://www.bushterminal.com http://www.crainsnewyork.com/insider

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crain's New York - March 18, 2013

IN THE BOROUGHS
IN THE MARKETS
THE INSIDER
BUSINESS PEOPLE
OPINION
STEVE HINDY
GREG DAVID
REPORT: REAL ESTATE
real estate deals
THE LIST
FOR THE RECORD
CLASSIFIEDS
SMALL BUSINESS
NEW YORK, NEW YORK
SOURCE LUNCH
OUT AND ABOUT
SNAPS

Crain's New York - March 18, 2013