Written for Mike Adler:

I am the Managing Partner at AC Lion and I bring over 12 years of investment banking, venture capital and sales experience to AC Lion. I recently received a newsletter from Rutberg & Company that so perfectly laid out a concise summary and perspective on the key digital media industry events relevant to private equity firms and companies. The newsletter implications included Rutberg & Company’s perspectives, adding their own observations, hypotheses, and investment theses. A lot of that information should be respected as exclusive Business Intelligence of which they have requested to remain confidential. Below, I’ve included some of the more relevant info to our space and leave room for you to formulate your own hypothesis:

• During the one month period from June 1 through June 30, 62 private digital media companies announced $416.7 million in venture capital financings.
• Investments were primarily in the Applications, Content Publishers, and Advertising Infrastructure sectors.
• There were also 37 M&A transactions announced during the period, including Verizon Wireless’ acquisition of Alltel, Bain Capital’s acquisition of D&M Holdings, and Microsoft’s acquisition of Navic Networks.

Here are a few graphs that depict and analyze venture capital and M&A activity for digital media during the first half of 2008….

Posted under Online Marketing

Original: Dan makes search “sexy” on DMNews.com
Date: July 17th

That’s right…AC Lion’s very own Dan Goldsmith has officially made search “SEXY” for job seekers. And just to confirm your suspicions, he has the support of Sara Holoubek the contributing editor of the DM News’ SearchBuzz newsletter and a regular author of the DM News Optimized column. And I quote Sarah from her DMNews article below.:

“Search has returned as a must-have for Fall 2008.”

In 2008 Ms. Holoubek was elected to the Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization (SEMPO) board of directors for a third term and co-founded the SEMPO NY Working Group. She is also an active board member of CampInteractive, a non profit dedicated to bridging the digital and leadership divide among inner city youth From 2003-2005, Ms. Holoubek served as iCrossing’s Chief Strategy Officer, building the firm’s New York office, repositioning the iCrossing brand as it raised an early VC round of $13 million.

…so if Sara thinks search “sexy”, then Dan can’t be wrong! Feel free to check out the article for yourself below (or simply click here:

Posted under Online Marketing

Original: BubbleComment: Video Comments 1-2-3
Posted: July 15th

Well, it’s no surprise that my attention has been diverted from Video to Social Networks this week…well, sort of. This weeks article was inspired by me literally stumbling on Mashable.com…

“Bubble Comment“! No it’s not XXX…nor is it a Bazooka Gum rating site! Bubble Comment is fully owned and operated by kShermanStudios LLC., a privately held group located in Sausalito, CA.,
and is part of the Bubble suite of video services which include:

	Bubble Guru A subscription based video service that enables you to directly engage your web site visitors and improve web-based communications.
	Bubble Testimonial A subscription based testimonial service that eliminates all the time-consuming aspects of gathering, organizing, and posting of customer testimonials.
	Bubble Joy A free service that allows you to send richly interactive video greeting cards to all your friends and family.
	Bubble Comment A free service that enables you to share personal video comments with others on virtually any web page.

You won’t find BubbleComment advertised on kShermanStudio’s main site just yet. Simply put, it does the simple but effective task of allowing you distribute a page to a circle of contacts along with personal video recording. It’s an easy 3-step process and can’t get any easier than plugging in a VCR (unless you’re a tech-tard…

…anyways, what is attractive about this product? Why would anyone take the time to do all of this when the old way of commenting works just fine for the amount of time it takes (less than 30 seconds)? Well, for one there’s no sign-in requirements No sign-in is required. Just two basic steps, and you’re done. It’s for video enthusiasts who really want to get their point across.

Give it a shot…you have nothing to lose except for your self dignity!

Posted under Online Video, Social Networks

Original: Viral Video of The Day – #2
Date: July 11th

It’s Friday and there’s a lot going on in the world today, but I feel it’s necessary to forget everything and do what 85% of internet users do and watch a video. My fellow AC Lion executive, Dan Goldsmith, took the liberty of sending me this video. Take a moment to sit back and relax. This one is for all the gamers in the house!!

Quick Synopsis:Tech Support Humor at it’s finest! Sales guy complains of web-site failure as TechSupport is completely immersed in Halo-3!

Posted under Online Video

I recently attended NYTechMeetup and had the pleasure of meeting Mike Davis, co-founder of a rather interesting and noteworthy mobile social network, MeetNowLive. Hands down, one of the coolest and most attractive mobile based social network I’ve seen so far. Leave it to Mike to make something this Hot! Check out their “Free Beer Friday’s” promotions on their site, among some basic about and contact information…but that’s it! They’ll have some account features and bar listings pretty soon, but it’s strictly for mobile devices. “Meet Now Live is a real-time, location based, mobile social network in and around New York City. Our members use their mobile phones to broadcast their current location as they party in the city.” Mike Davis took the time to write up a little blurb about who they are and what they do…read it below. Let us know what you think!

Meet Now Live (MNL) is a pioneering location-based, mobile social-networking service connecting young professional urbanites in their quest for real-time bar, event, and nightlife information in New York City and surrounding areas. Launched in April 2008, the service is available on any cell phone or mobile device with internet access. With 2,000 bars, clubs, lounges, and restaurants in its network, MNL is the only service of its kind to allow users to broadcast their location from their favorite place of interest and invite other users to join. MNL is a free, “device agnostic,” mobile service where users can create profiles, send messages, friend one another, upload pictures, create personalized location-specific events, and plan their night on-the-fly, based on the location of their friends. Now anyone can view real pictures of real people at bars, clubs, lounges, parties, and restaurants without ever stepping foot inside. Beta Launch: During this launch period which lasts until Labor Day weekend, MNL has joined forces with The Town Tavern, Whistling Dixies Texas Tavern, and Porky’s NYC to offer “Free Beer Fridays!”. When users “broadcast” their location from these bars, encouraging friends and other MNL users to join them, the MNL system delivers an on-screen mobile ticket that grants them the right to unlimited free draft beers. Mike Davis | Co-Founder Meet Now Live, Inc. www.MEETNOWLIVE.com

Posted under Social Networks