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Specific Media Gearing Technology for Prez Election

Irvine’s Specific Media Inc., an online advertising startup, is using its targeting technology to try to drum up business in this year’s presidential election.

Last week it announced an advertising service specifically geared for political campaign marketing.

Specific Media makes money by buying up banner ad spots on Web sites and reselling the space to companies looking to advertise to specific groups of people,in this case, political marketers, campaigners and their staffs.

“With the high number of voter registrations and turnout during the primary race season, this is a big year in American politics,” Chief Executive Tim Vanderhook said. “It is also an important year in advertising, as political campaigns and advocacy groups are set to increase their online spending.”

The advertisers pay a premium for the spots because of Specific Media’s “behavioral targeting” technology, which can go after people based on location and Web sites visited, among other criteria.

Specific Media looks at a variety of things to create profiles of particular types of Internet users,say, liberal females ages 25 to 35 who voted for Hillary Clinton.

The company uses a slew of funky algorithms that can predict future Web surfing by looking at the types of newspaper articles, blogs, polls, surveys and newsfeeds a person reads.

Specific Media created 165 unique “audience profiles” that are distinguished by party affiliations, geography and issues that matter to them, according to David Jakubowski, senior vice president.

The technology isn’t terribly different from predicting the kinds of things a person might buy based on their Web surfing, he said.

“People who are interested in issues fundamentally do the same things as people who are buying a new car,” Jakubowski said. “They research and make comparisons.”

Specific Media is set to host an event in July in Washington, D.C., to discuss topics surrounding political targeting that will feature campaign strategist and political consultant Matthew Dowd.

Political targeting already is gaining some traction, Jakubowski said.

“We’ve had a bunch of support early on,” he said. “Initial demand shows it will have significant, positive effects on our revenue this year and next.”

Specific Media, which raised roughly $100 million in financing late last year, doesn’t disclose revenue.

The company has some 100 workers in Irvine and another 70 in London. It’s eyeing an initial public offering in the next year or so.


Cisco Showdown

An Orange County judge denied Cisco Systems Inc.’s bid to settle a lawsuit outside court.

In a lawsuit filed in early 2007, San Clemente-based Cisco products reseller Infra-Comm Corp. said that Cisco breached contracts related to its incentive programs and other reseller agreements.

Infra-Comm alleged that Cisco broke a promise of exclusivity and improperly inked a $5 million deal with another reseller.

The lawsuit alleges that in early 2006, after working for years with Infra-Comm to develop a large sale of Cisco’s products and services, Cisco asked AT & T; Inc. to take Infra-Comm’s place as reseller of the products, including disclosing Infra-Comm’s sales pitch and extending the same pricing to AT & T.;

After the suit was filed, Cisco ended Infra-Comm’s status as an authorized reseller, so it no longer could resell its products and services to some 40 of its customers.

Infra-Comm says it lost 90% of its revenue and was forced to lay off most of its workers and close two offices because of it.

At its peak, the company had revenue of more than $5 million and around 16 workers here, according to spokeswoman Eileen Rauchberg. It now has four workers.

Infra-Comm had been a reseller of Cisco’s telecommunications gear since 2000.

The two are set to face off in court Sept. 22 in Santa Ana.


New CFO

Newport Beach chipmaker Mindspeed Technologies Inc. nabbed a finance executive from Irvine’s Broadcom Corp.

Bret Johnsen, 39, is set to be Mindspeed’s chief financial officer.

He’s replacing Simon Biddiscombe, who left in April to take the finance chief post at Aliso Viejo’s QLogic Corp.

Johnsen’s previous post at Broadcom was as vice president and corporate controller.

He also served as director of finance and operations for manufacturing, controller for central engineering and a handful of other business groups.

Before Broadcom, he spent three years in finance at the chipmaker’s biggest wireless rival, San Diego’s Qualcomm Corp.

At Mindspeed, Johnsen is set to report directly to Chief Executive Raouf Halim.

Mindspeed has been having a tough go of late,shares are off more than 70% and its stock has been trading at less than a dollar since the start of the year.

Its networking chips go into routers, switches and wireless networks.

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