DeSilva+Phillips, Mediabankers™ Client Microsoft Corporation Sells Franchise Gator subsidiary to Landmark Interactive

DeSilva+Phillips, Mediabankers™, announces that its client Microsoft Corporation has sold FranchiseGator.com, a Microsoft Corporation Subsidiary, to Landmark Interactive, a division of Landmark Media Enterprises LLC, a diversified media and communications company.

New York, NY (PRWEB) April 8, 2009

DeSilva+Phillips, Mediabankers™, announces that its client Microsoft Corporation has sold Franchise Gator, a Microsoft Corporation Subsidiary, to Landmark Interactive, a division of Landmark Media Enterprises LLC, a diversified media and communications company.

Franchise Gator, founded in 2001, is a leading Internet-based franchise pay-for-performance marketing service. The Franchise Gator Web site, FranchiseGator.com, presents prospective franchisees with profiles of leading franchise opportunities and businesses in more than 100 industry sectors. In 2006 Franchise Gator was acquired by aQuantive, a global digital marketing company which owned Avenue A | Razorfish, the largest interactive agency in the US, and other performance media and behavioral targeting businesses. Microsoft Corporation acquired Franchise Gator as a part of aQuantive in 2007, when it became a subsidiary of Microsoft Advertising.
Jay C. MacDonald, the DeSilva+Phillips partner in charge of the deal, said "at a time when hundreds of thousands of Americans are looking to take charge of their own economic destinies, Franchise Gator's business - connecting business opportunity-seekers with this nation's preeminent franchisors - is poised for rapid growth. The acquisition by Landmark Interactive complements Landmark's existing franchise media businesses."

About Landmark Interactive
Landmark Interactive (http://www.LandmarkInteractive.com) offers the leading online marketplaces for franchise and business ownership opportunities. In addition to properties in the franchise recruitment space, Landmark Interactive includes Alliant Cooperative Data Solutions, the leading cooperative database marketing provider to the soft-offer direct marketing space; and Digital Envoy, the pioneer of IP Intelligence and Geo-location technology and their use in fraud prevention solutions.
Landmark Interactive is a division of Landmark Media Enterprises LLC, a diversified media and communications company headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia.

About DeSilva+Phillips, Mediabankers™
DeSilva+Phillips is a New York -based investment bank specializing in the media, digital media and healthcare communications industries. The firm provides M&A advisory and corporate restructuring services and private placements of debt and equity to the medical and healthcare media, magazine, Internet, newspaper, book publishing, trade shows & events, information, educational, and marketing-services industries. DeSilva+Phillips has completed more than 200 transactions since 1996. For more information visit http://www.Mediabankers.com or contact Jay C. MacDonald, partner, at jay9at)mediabankers.com

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