Siemer & Associates LLC Advises Fetch Technologies on its Sale to Connotate

Acquisition Makes Connotate One of World’s Largest Web Data and Business Intelligence Companies

March 6, 2012 (Los Angeles, CA) ─ Siemer & Associates LLC, the merchant bank serving the digital media, software and technology industry, is pleased to announce it has advised Fetch Technologies, a data aggregator, on its sale to Connotate, a data optimizer. Based in Brunswick, New Jersey, Connotate will gain access to El Segundo, CA-based Fetch Technologies’ clients and data collection technology, which will be incorporated into its own operations. The combined entity will be able to provide more data services to more businesses throughout the country.

The two web data mining organizations make it easier for their clients to quickly gain access to large pools of data pulled from across the web ─ from news and press releases, to blogs and social media, to company financials, to product information and government records. Businesses large and small use the data to find out everything from pricing information, which allows retailers and manufacturers to set prices on their own products; to company and government press releases and real-time social-media news, which allows news outlets to report on stories as they develop; and financial information, to help investors and bankers better determine which stocks and bonds to buy, sell and hold. The addition of Fetch will establish Connotate as one of the largest data aggregators in the world.

“Fetch Technology’s innovative platform for the extraction of accurate, real-time content, news and competitive intelligence data from the Web fits perfectly with Connotate’s proven business intelligence solutions to collect and transform information form the Web and enterprises into user-empowered on-demand applications and actionable intelligence,” said David Siemer, Managing Director at Siemer & Associates. “Both management teams are highly complementary and extremely well-positioned to continue to lead the enterprise market for actionable, real-time data.”

Ryan Mulholland, CEO of Fetch Technologies, added, “Siemer’s consistently excellent and persistent outreach efforts and advice helped us to collectively navigate our way from the starting point of a highly coordinated market outreach process which yielded a comprehensive set of responses from key identified strategic and financial targets all the way through to the ultimate conclusion of this successful transaction.”

About Fetch Technologies

Fetch enables organizations of all sizes, from Fortune 500 companies to small businesses, to access, aggregate and use real-time Web data. Fetch’s technology is tailored to fit each customer’s needs. Its agents navigate websites to instantly deliver meaningful, usable information. Its clients use Fetch to connect to millions of websites, to gather data for a myriad of applications, including competitive intelligence, news aggregation, data analysis and background screening.

Established in 1999 by two faculty members at the University of Southern California Information Sciences Institute, Fetch utilizes cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence research. Although Fetch is a leader in its field, it continues to push the boundaries of what its agents can do to serve its clients’ needs, and it is constantly refining its product with ongoing research and development. Fetch maintains a strong commitment to academic research in operating Fetch Labs, an in-house research facility which expands the theoretical frontiers of information extraction, information integration, and data analytics ─ allowing its clients to access tomorrow’s technology today.

About Connotate

Connotate combines smart people with market-leading products designed to help its customers get more value from their data. Delivering impressive productivity gains, its customers agree: Connotate provides a powerful, easy-to-use solution that can be employed by all members of customer organizations to harvest web content.

Since 2000, Connotate has been helping customers gain access to information vital to their businesses’ success. Some of the country’s best-known companies use Connotate, including Associated Press, McGraw Hill, Dow Jones, Janus Capital Group, Reed Elsevier, Standard & Poor’s and Thomson Reuters. Connotate’s reliable, accurate and scalable solution works across the enterprise and empowers the productivity of web data monitoring and collection.

Connotate creates long-lasting partnerships with its clients and its solution delivers a number of key benefits. It more than doubles clients’ current web monitoring and mining productivity. It shortens time-to-market for new product innovations or enhancements to existing products and services. It enables new revenue streams through new product and service offerings. It provides automated alerts that increase insight for strategic and competitive advantage.

About Siemer & Associates LLC

Siemer & Associates LLC is a global boutique merchant bank dedicated to offering candid insight and guidance to digital media, software and Internet companies throughout their business life cycles. Composed of industry veterans who have worked both inside and out of technology enterprises, S&A has successfully completed more than 50 transactions that aggregated over $3 billion in sell-side mandates and surpassed $1.5 billion in equity capital.  Headquartered in Los Angeles with offices in Singapore and Hong Kong, S&A offers exceptional corporate capital raising, financial advisory services and M&A, specializing in complex cross-border transactions.

Committed to expanding the international technology ecosystem, Siemer & Associates promotes innovative entrepreneurs through its early-stage investment arm, Siemer Ventures. One of the most active investment funds in Southern California, Siemer Ventures claims more than 40 current portfolio companies and makes an average of 12 new investments each year in startups. Siemer Ventures bridges the funding gap between seed and Series A capital raises, helping emerging leaders overcome a critical hurdle to success necessary for the ongoing development of the global technology marketplace.