Five months after raising $10 million in fifth round funding, Lijit Networks has been acquired by blog network Federated Media for an undisclosed amount. According to the article, “The Boulder, CO-based search tools provider will keep its name and headquarters. Lijit CEO Todd Vernon will become EVP of Technology and Lijit COO Walter Knapp will become SVP of Platform Revenue at Federated Media Publishing and will report directly to FM’s CEO, Deanna Brown. The deal comes a year after FM has been quiet on the acquisition front, in comparison to 2010, when it bought three companies—gourmand-focused blog aggregator FoodBuzz, parenting portal BigTent and semantic search technology from TextDigger—in quick succession.”

It continues, “Lijit had been sharpening its focus on connecting small businesses to social media marketing. Small and medium businesses are only starting to explore online marketing in a more serious way, so the acquisition should help FM on its own expansion plans, which have centered around broadening the kind of content it offers beyond tech to include food and parenting sites. The deal also comes as FM’s competition has grown in the past year, as companies that also claim the ‘social marketing’ mantle have emerged, including Say Media and Halogen Media. Buying Lijit also recognizes publishers’ and advertisers’ ever-greater demands for deeper analytics and user data.”

Image: Courtesy Lijit