Vibrant CEO and Co-Founder Doug Stevenson Steps Down; CFO Jeff Babka Promoted to COO Running Day-to-Day Operations

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire - Jul 13, 2011) - Vibrant Media, the leading provider of contextual advertising solutions, today announced that CEO and co-founder Doug Stevenson has stepped down from his CEO position. Vibrant co-founder Craig Gooding was named non-executive Chairman and will serve as strategic counsel with a focus on products and technology. CFO Jeff Babka has been promoted to COO while retaining his CFO responsibilities and is responsible for day-to-day management of the company.

"When I co-founded Vibrant, we were a small group of entrepreneurs passionate about realizing the potential of an important, sizeable market opportunity," said Doug Stevenson. "Over the following 11 years, I led the team that transformed an early stage start-up to a profitable company with more than $100 million in revenue. It has been a rewarding and gratifying time, and given the company's current strength and market position, I believe that now is the right time for me to step down and spend some time with my family. I'm confident that Vibrant will continue its aggressive growth, and make significant contributions to the web advertising space."

"Vibrant has grown at a good clip during the last few years, and we're excited about the opportunities ahead as more top brand advertisers and premium publishers see positive returns on their investments in contextual advertising," said Jeff Babka. "We believe we're well positioned to take advantage of the continued trend of offline ad dollars moving online and expect to see our growth rate increase as we deliver the industry's best technology solutions for content-focused advertising."

Vibrant reported revenues of nearly $110 million in 2010, with a 21 percent annual growth rate. Vertical market areas such as consumer electronics, business/finance and automotive, were strong during 2010 and continue to be areas of growth in 2011. In addition, the launch of Vibrant's Contextual platform (VXPlatform) this year, followed by subsequent products throughout the year, including Vibrant Social Bar and Vibrant Display (VIA), has cemented the company's position as the leading provider of premium contextual solutions for top brand advertisers such as Chrysler, Microsoft, AT&T, and Unilever.

"The board would like to thank Doug for his vision and tireless efforts building Vibrant Media from a pre-revenue start-up to the industry leader in contextual advertising," said Ralph Terkowitz, general partner, ABS Capital Partners and Vibrant board member. "After more than 10 years as CEO, Doug is taking a much-deserved break. We wish him well as he pursues the next stage of his career."

About Vibrant
Vibrant (www.vibrantmedia.com) is a world leader in contextual technology aligning billions of words across the Internet with relevant video, information, tools, and advertising. With over 6,000 premium publishers, reaching more than 250 million unique users per month (comScore, 2011), Vibrant gives top brand marketers the opportunity to deliver highly targeted advertisements within premium Web content and offers publishers premium editorial tools to re-circulate users throughout their websites. Vibrant works with top brand advertisers such as Microsoft, Unilever, Chrysler and AT&T. The company was founded in 2000 and has offices in London, New York, Boston, Detroit, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Paris, Hamburg, Munich and Dusseldorf. Vibrant's rapid growth has been recognized by the Inc. 500 and Deloitte Fast 50 lists. Vibrant CEO and Co-founder Doug Stevenson was named Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2010 for Metro New York. For more information, www.vibrantmedia.com or www.hyperlinkevolved.com or www.facebook.com/vibrantmedia or http://twitter.com/vibrantmedia.