Former ScreamingMedia Bought by MarketWatch.com

MarketWatch.com this morning reported that it would buy Pinnacor, formerly known as ScreamingMedia, for approximately $100 million in cash and stock, a roughly 10% premium above Pinnacor’s current market capitalization. True to its name, ScreamingMedia was one of the hyperbolic media companies of the Internet Bubble. Founded in 1993 as Interactive Connection, a Web design business, by Alan Ellman, it switched to Web content syndication services when it became the content provider to AT&T’s Atlanta Olympics website in 1996. Two years later, advertising legend Jay Chiat joined as interim CEO and the company renamed itself ScreamingMedia a year later. In 2000, it raised $65 million in a stock offering, but burned through most of that opening offices throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. The Internet Bubble then burst and the company’s stock lost more than 90% of its value. ScreamingMedia closed most of its offices and switched its focus to syndication to the financial services industry when last year it acquired Stockpoint, a financial services information company, and renamed itself Pinnacor. MarketWatch.com announced that it will incorporate Pinnacor’s financial information application and customization capabilities into its own applications.