Sydney SEO marketing firm Downstream Media acquired by American ad platform

Sydney-based SEM firm Downstream Media has been acquired by digital advertising and marketing services firm Electronic Frontier, in a deal the founder says will deliver its clients a significant boost in social media exposure.

The business is now completely owned by Efficient Frontier, which bought a third of business from chief executive Steve Knowles and a majority stake from Netus, the News Limited-backed investment company.

Although Knowles said he could not reveal a purchase price, it is reported the deal values Downstream at $35 million, with some shares also purchased from a senior staff member.

“This is going to give us a big leg up in social media,” he says. “We’ve always been able to deliver very strong services to business with regard to display advertising, but Facebook is the highest growth platform online.”

“What we will be able to do is give our clients a better understanding of how to engage with managing a relationship on Facebook and Twitter than we’ve been able to do.”

Downstream, whose clients include Vodafone, Wotif, Jetstar and ING, was founded in 2005 after Knowles left his previous position as marketing director of eBay in 2005.

At that time, Knowles was in conversation with former Microsoft executive Daniel Petre and former eBay executive Alison Deans, who founded Netus. Downstream partnered with Efficient Frontier’s technology to deliver not only SEO services, but also optimisation and automation services for online ad platforms.

Efficient is owned by a number of venture capital firms, with former Yahoo executive David Karnstedt at the helm.

“We’ve been partners for quite some time now,” Knowles says. “We were very related businesses, and what became increasingly apparent was that for Efficient Frontier to expand in the Asia region, there is an opportunity.”

“We are the largest provider of search engine marketing and SEO services in Australia, so it’s a powerful play from that perspective.”

Knowles says the direction of the business won’t change much considering it has partnered with Efficient Frontier for several years, but is confident it will mean more social media opportunities for its clients.

“We are very closely related businesses, and it just makes sense to work together. We will now be able to work with advertising, get them to manage relationships with Facebook and Twitter, using the team at Efficient Frontier.”

The sale is a big win for Netus, which has previously invested in some of Australia’s fastest growing online ventures including Buyster and OurDeal, although those investments were sold earlier this year. Currently it has investments in both The Video Company and publishing group Allure Media.