Rocket Fuel Inc.

Rocket Fuel Inc.
Company typePrivate
IndustryMarketing and Advertising
Founded2008; 16 years ago (2008)
FoundersGeorge John, Richard Frankel, Abhinav Gupta
Headquarters
Redwood City, CA[1]
,
US
Number of locations
20
Area served
North America, Europe, and Japan; 20,000 advertisers and 3,600 advertising agencies[2]
Key people
  • Randy Wootton, CEO[2]
  • Simon Hayhurst, VP Product
Number of employees
700+

Rocket Fuel was an ad technology company based in Redwood City, California.[3] It was founded in 2008 by alumni of Yahoo!.[3]

Rocket Fuel completed an initial public offering in September 2013.[4] The initial stock offering was $29 per share and reached a high of $59.95 per share when the stock opened. The stock closed at $56.10 per share on opening day, giving the company a value of $942.5 million.[5] By February 24, 2015, the stock had dropped to $9.63, or 86 percent below its record high and 67 percent below its IPO price.[6]

Rocket Fuel acquired the New York-based ad tech company [x+1] in August 2014 for $230 million.[7][8][9]

In 2017, the company was acquired by Sizmek, a private ad tech company owned by Vector Capital; one outcome of this was a retreat from public company status back to being a private company.[2]

In November 2017, Sizmek retired the brand Rocket Fuel.[citation needed]

  1. ^ Courtney Subramanian (March 17, 2014). "In marketing, embracing a world where data rules". CNN Money. Retrieved May 1, 2014.
  2. ^ a b c Schubarth, Cromwell (18 July 2017). "One-time ad tech unicorn sells at 90% discount from IPO price". Silicon Valley Business Journal. Retrieved 19 July 2017. Ad tech company Rocket Fuel is being acquired by for $125.5 million by Sizmek, a privately owned company in the same business owned by private-equity firm Vector Capital.
  3. ^ a b Sramana Mitra (21 October 2013). "Rocket Fuel's IPO Soars". Seeking Alpha. Retrieved 3 December 2013.
  4. ^ "Rocket Fuel Exec Offers Reasons For Optimism About The Future Of Mobile Advertising". Adotas. 4 February 2014. Retrieved 9 March 2014.
  5. ^ Brodie, Lee (13 November 2013). "Cramer: This stock is literally Rocket Fuel". CNBC. Retrieved 13 March 2015.
  6. ^ Kilgore, Tomi (March 6, 2015) "11 stock bubbles that have already popped." Marketwatch. (Retrieved 6-11-2015.)
  7. ^ Zach Rogers (5 August 2014). "Rocket Fuel To Buy [X+1] For Estimated $230M". ad exchanger. Retrieved 24 August 2014.
  8. ^ Jordan Novet (5 August 2014). "Ad-tech player Rocket Fuel buys programmatic marketing company [x+1]". Venture Beat. Retrieved 24 August 2014.
  9. ^ Garett Sloane (5 August 2014). "Rocket Fuel's Deal to Buy [x+1] Propels It Into Marketing Cloud Territory". Adweek. Retrieved 24 August 2014.