Ten years ago, I was one of the original startup employees at Accipiter, the web advertising software company. Accipiter was founded by Raleigh entrepreneur Chris Evans and soon grew on the edge of the web advertising boom.
That Accpiter company got sold to CMGI, a smoke-and-mirrors dot-bomb company that soon cratered in a big way. Accipiter became part of CMGI’s company Engage Technologies, being renamed Engage.
CMGI went bust when investors got wise to dot-com companies. (If your company ever gets bought and your New Overlords can’t stop calling the founder a “visionary,” run – don’t walk – to the exits!)
Engage’s offices on Highwoods Boulevard sat vacant for years. In 2002, someone at Engage talked management into spinning Accipiter off again. They did, and lo and behold Accipiter was reborn.
Yesterday, the new, improved Accipiter was sold once again, this time to a company called aQuantive for $30 million in cash.
No one I worked with at the original Accipiter appears to be with this Accipiter. Looks like the same name and product but an entirely different team. I find it funny to see this company’s name in the press again, so many years after it was first assimilated.
On a similar note, I wonder what Chris Evans is up to nowadays.