Miva announced Monday it secured a $10 million credit line, as the digital advertising and media company seeks to expand its brand and introduce a new ad platform amid a troubled economy.
Miva, which received its credit line from a subsidiary of Bridge Capital Holdings, plans to use the proceeds toward expanding its Alot toolbar and homepage brand, as well as its Miva Media ad platform.
The credit line will give some leeway to the company, which initiated a restructuring in the second quarter and announced a 15 percent cut in its workforce.
Miva also rejected the unwelcome advances of British video search site Blinkx in August, saying its buyout offer of $1.20 a share undervalued the company.
"I believe this credit line will provide the company liquidity at this pivotal time in our growth and development," Peter Corrao, Miva's CEO, said in a statement. "I believe it represents an important step in our efforts to expand our Alot toolbar and homepage brand, as well as support the rollout of our new Miva Media ad platform, which we launched in beta earlier this month."
The British video search site Blinkx has offered to acquire Miva, a digital-ad company that sprang out of Web 1.0 search ad firm FindWhat, for a price of $1.20 per share in cash. That's a 54 percent premium over Miva's August 7 closing price of 78 cents.
"A combination of the two companies--fusing Miva's advertising network with Blinkx's ability to leverage its technology portfolio into the online market--presents an exciting and compelling opportunity," a release from Blinkx read. Miva has not yet responded to the offer.
Several months ago, reports surfaced that both Google and News Corp. were interested in acquiring Blinkx, making the publicly traded dot-com's stock spike.
Miva, meanwhile, has been going through some very rough waters. Longtime president and chief marketing officer Seb Bishop resigned on Tuesday. In its offer letter to Miva, Blinkx named "several challenges" that could make the ad firm agree to such a sale: "risk and cost associated with (its) new technology platform, a deteriorating cash position, continued deterioration of (its) Media EU business and continued decline in revenue and profitability."
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