First Advantage Corp. and The First American Corp. today jointly announced that they have acquired a 75 percent ownership interest in LeadClick Media Inc., an online lead-generation and marketing company, for $150 million. First American contributed $45 million in cash and First Advantage contributed the balance in a combination of cash, stock and notes.
LeadClick Media, based in San Francisco, provides Web-based lead generation services primarily to the automotive, real estate and financial services markets. LeadClick offers consumers a variety of convenient resources to request business services and complete a brief profile of their needs. Screening more that 20 million online visitors each month, LeadClick collects hundreds of thousands of qualified leads for a variety of services. By augmenting the data collected by LeadClick with the real estate information of First American and the business information of First Advantage, the companies aim to offer an even stronger picture of prospective business leads that they can offer to mortgage and automotive lenders and other providers of personal financial services.
Initial benefits of this relationship are readily apparent as LeadClick Media continues its lead-generation service for BarNone, a wholly owned subsidiary of First Advantage. In addition, LeadClick’s lead-generation capabilities, in combination with First American’s and Teletrack’s distribution channels, enhance the consumer lifecycle within the mortgage and micro-loan industries.
Through the formation of a jointly owned holding company, LeadClick Holdings Co. LLC, First Advantage and First American acquired 75 percent of the equity of LeadClick Media. First Advantage, as the lead investor, owns 70 percent of the initial equity stake and First American owns the balance. The terms of the agreement have provided for the acquisition of the remaining 25 percent over the next three years from LeadClick Media’s shareholders.
It is expected that the management of LeadClick Media will remain in place as this business is aligned with First Advantage’s Data Services segment, according to a press statement.
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