Investors Supporting Spyware

Investors Supporting Spyware
Benjamin Edelman - Spyware Research, Legislation, and Suits

Major investment firms help support the operations of large US-based spyware companies. This page gives a summary of such companies and the investment firms supporting them. See listing criteria.

Related Projects

180solutions & Affiliate Commissions

Advertisers Using WhenU

WhenU Violates Own Privacy Policy

Documentation of Gator Advertisements and Targeting

"Spyware": Research, Testing, Legislation, Suits

Other Research by Ben Edelman

Company (products)	Investor, investment amount, date (with links to SEC disclosures, investors' other investments)	Controversial product characteristics / my research / references
IronSource	$80 million - JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley - August 2014 $20 million - Access Industries - February 2015 reports revenue above $250 million in 2014 and IPO planned at valuation of $1.5-$1.6 billion known investors: Access Industry Holding Inc. Carmel Ventures Disruptive Technologies Limited Partner Ping-An Ventures China Broadband Partners Limited Partner Leumi Partners	installing through bundles without participation from mainstream software included in the bundle and contrary to EULA installing through bundles with nonexistent software never actually provided to users presenting license agreement links with no distinctive format to alert users to contract terms touting bundled adware without a distinctive name to distinguish it from the mainstream software users requested linking to license agreements on an inoperational server
180solutions (Zango, n-Case)	$40 million - Spectrum Equity Investors - March 2004 Other investments: Cellular One, Loews Cineplex Interview quote: SEI "considers 180solutions a 'good actor'" purportedly yielded a 25% ownership stake company shut down with no payments to equity investors - April 2009	installing through security holes installing through misleading bundles installing through misleading offers on kids sites installing through misleading pop-up ads installing after users specifically refuse consent claiming affiliate commissions covering web sites with competitors' sites advertiser list - partial associated intermediaries (ad networks) luring installations with copyrighted material and with material widely available elsewhere for free
Claria / Gator (GAIN)	$58+ million - investment dates unknown U.S. Venture Partners - Other investments: Ask Jeeves, Cisco, Iomega, Sun Greylock - Other investments: DoubleClick, Evite, Filene's Basement, LinkedIn, Red Hat, Staples, Upromise Crosslink Capital - Other investments: Broderbund, CompUSA, Emachines, TiVo Garage Technology Ventures - Other investments: Digital Envoy, The Motley Fool Rosewood Stone Group - Other investments: Allaire, Concentric Network, Salon.com, The Well Investor AB - Other investments: Ericsson, Saab, Scania Technology Crossover Ventures - Other investments: Brightmail, c\|net, eBags, eHarmony, Expedia, Fandango, MyPoints, Netflix, Real - Also invested in spyware remover Webroot	installing through misleading ads at kids sites installing through bundles with games confusing installations with lengthy, poorly-presented, one-sided licenses covering web sites with ads for competitors making false claims about business practices failing to provide a working uninstaller & instructions advertisers - historic
Direct Revenue (BetterInternet, OfferOptimizer, many aliases)	$20 million - Insight Venture Partners - April 2004 Other investments: Hitwise, Kanoodle $6.7 million - Technology Investment Capital Corp - August 2004 Interview re Direct Revenue practices investor correspondence re Direct Revenue practices & complaints	installing through security holes installing through misleading pop-up ads deleting competitors from users' disks covering web sites with competitors' sites Newsweek article: use of many aliases, claiming affiliate commissions advertiser list - partial invoking affiliate links to claim commissions improperly internal discussions & litigation documents
eXact Advertising (BargainBuddy, BullsEye)	$15 million - Technology Investment Capital Corp - November 2004	installing through security holes installing through misleading pop-up ads claiming affiliate commissions covering web sites with competitors' sites advertiser list invoking affiliate links to claim commissions improperly
Vendare Group	unknown amount - Insight Venture Partners - November 2004	owns New.net, which installs through exploits and in misleading bundles owns eMarketMakers, which directly funds 180solutions and eXact Advertising, and indirectly funds Direct Revenue also owns jackpot.com and uproar.com, which SiteAdvisor reports send 99+ and 149+ emails per week to users who sign up on the respective sites
Hotbar	$3 million - DaimlerChrysler, Deutsche Telekom, Lockheed Martin, Bertelsmann, Technorov - November 1999 $11 million - Deutsche Banc, C.E. Unterberg, Towbin Private Equity Partners - February 2001 $3.5 million - April 2001	installations at sites targeting kids license agreements not affirmatively shown to users installation confirmation screen without a button or option to cancel intrusive advertising not specifically disclosed in prior on-screen text placing ads into other vendors' spyware (installed without consent) claiming affiliate commissions on users' type-in requests for merchants' sites
Webhancer	$13 million - Skypoint Capital, Vimac, Jefferson Partners - June 2000 additional rounds of funding - reportedly a total of $25 million	installations through security holes installations through misleading bundles tracking the specific web pages users visit

These investments total more than $179 million.

Links labeled access SEC information about the specified investment firms. Although some investment firms share similar names, I believe the links point to disclosures from the firms investing in the specified companies. Where available, I also provide information about selected well-known investments by these firms.

Return to top

Criteria

The table above lists software companies meeting two criteria:

1) I consider their products spyware, due to tracking and/or collection of sensitive information (often, lists of web sites users visit) either without any notice and consent at all, or without meaningful, clear notice yielding informed consent; and

2) They have received major financial investments.

Send suggestions for addition.

Return to top

Disclosures

My interest in spyware originally arose in part from a prior consulting engagement in which I served as an expert to parties adverse to Claria in litigation. See Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Company, LLC, et al. v. the Gator Corporation. More recently, I have served as an expert or consultant to other parties adverse to spyware companies in litigation or contemplated litigation.

This page is my own work - created on my own, without approval by any client, without payment from any client.

Last Updated: March 3, 2015 - Sign up for notification of major updates and related work.