Marketwired

Marketwired was a press release distribution service headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded in 1993 and incorporated in the U.S. in 1999. In 2018, it was merged into GlobeNewswire.

Marketwired

Type	Subsidiary
Industry	News dissemination
Founded	1982 (as Canadian Corporate News)
Headquarters	Toronto, Ontario , Canada
Area served	Canada, United States, United Kingdom, Europe, Asia, and Latin America
Key people	Adnan Ahmed (President and Chief Executive Officer)
Services	Online press release and content distribution. Social media monitoring and research.
Owner	West Corporation
Number of employees	300+
Subsidiaries	Sysomos
Website	marketwired.com

Corporate history

Marketwired was founded as Internet Wire in October 1994 by PR agency owner Michael Terpin and online marketer Michael Shuler in Los Angeles, California, United States. It received $17.5 million in venture capital in January 2000.[1] The company changed its name to Market Wire in April, 2003, after making a partnership with NASDAQ, where its services would be recommended to listed companies.[2]

In 2000, a former employee of Internet Wire used the service to perpetrate an insider trading scam. He shorted Emulex stock, then published a fraudulent press release reporting problems at Emulex Corporation, which lost 62 percent of its value in morning trading. He was found out by the FBI and sentenced to 44 months in prison.[3]

In 2006, Marketwired (then known as Marketwire) was acquired by CCNMatthews, a 25-year-old news distribution company in Canada. The company adopted the name Marketwire unilaterally. At that point, it was majority-owned by OMERS Private Equity,[4] which manages the private equity activities of OMERS Administration Corporation, a Canadian pension fund. The company's history can be traced back to 1957.

In July 2010, Marketwire acquired Sysomos, a social monitoring and analytics service, offering customers the ability to track their social presence across sites like Facebook and Twitter.[5]

In October 2011, Marketwire filed a lawsuit accusing PR Newswire of trying to steal confidential information and trade secrets, seeking at least $25 million in damages.[6]

In April 2013, Marketwire re-branded, changing its name to Marketwired and introducing the tagline "The power of influence" with an updated logo.[7]

In February 2016, MarketWired was acquired by Nasdaq, Inc.[8]

In January 2018 Nasdaq's public relations business lines were acquired by West Corporation. Marketwired was merged into GlobeNewswire.[9]

See also

• List of press release agencies

References

1. "Internet Wire Launches Second-Generation Internet- Based Company News Service; Raises $17.5 Million First Round, Led By Sequoia Capital & Hummer Winblad Venture Partners". Market Wire. 2005.
2. SATZMAN, DARRELL (2003-05-05). "Renamed Market Wire Looks to Nasdaq Deal to Boost Business". Los Angeles Business Journal. Retrieved 2020-06-13.
3. "Litigation Release No. 17094: Defendant in Emulex Hoax Sentenced". Securities and Exchange Commission. 2001-08-08. Retrieved 2020-06-13.
4. "Our story". OMERS. Retrieved 2020-06-13. OMERS Private Equity, the private equity arm of one of Canada’s largest pension funds, has agreed to purchase CCNMatthews, (later named, Marketwire)
5. "Marketwire acquires Sysomos". MaRS Discovery District. 2010-07-08. Retrieved 2020-06-13.
6. Stempel, Jonathan (October 26, 2011). "Stop the press releases! PR Newswire sued by rival". Reuters.
7. Sullivan, Laurie (April 2, 2013). "Marketwire Rebrands, Names Delaney COO, Former Yahoo VP As CTO". mediapost.com. Retrieved 2020-06-13.
8. "Nasdaq to Acquire Marketwired" (Press release). Nasdaq, Inc. 2016-02-12. Retrieved 2020-06-13.
9. "West Corporation Agrees to Acquire NASDAQ'S Public Relations Solutions and digital Media Services Businesses". Nasdaq, Inc. 2018-01-29. Retrieved 2020-06-13.