AdBrite makes clean break with porn-ad partner
How eager is AdBrite founder Philip Kaplan to get into the porn-ads business? So eager that he's counting the seconds. On AVNAds.com, the relaunch site for AdBrite's partnership with porn-trade publisher AVN, there's a splash page announcing the move to Black Label Ads, a new website wholly owned and operated by AdBrite, in less than two days. We hear that making a clean break with AVN — without the acrimony of past attempts to split up — was a requirement before Sequoia Capital and other investors put in their latest investment, a $23 million financing round for the online ad network. Not that investors have entirely quelled their concerns about AdBrite being in the porn business. The new site, Black Label Ads, attempts to disguise the AdBrite connection — except in its legal agreements.