internet media founded june 27 1998 ; 18 years ago 1998 06 27 1 as carsdirect headquarters el segundo california united states area served worldwide key people robert brisco president and ceo products consumer websites ; software applications revenue us 99.8 million 2009 citation needed operating income us 20.2 million 2009 citation needed net income us 12.4 million 2009 citation needed owner kohlberg kravis roberts & co. l.p. website internetbrands.com internet brands inc. is an american new media company based in el segundo california united states that operates online media community and e commerce sites in vertical markets . the company also develops and licenses internet software and social media applications . contents 1 businesses 1.1 consumer internet division 2 history 3 controversies 3.1 vbulletin criticism 3.2 vbulletin and xenforo 3.3 wikitravel and wikimedia 3.4 greenlight financial services 3.5 model mayhem 4 references businesses edit the company operates two divisions consumer internet and licensing . consumer internet division edit the consumer internet division owns and operates more than 95 websites in seven categories . the company attracts more than 62 million unique visitors per month with 97 % of the audience originating from organic non paid sources . 2 3 4 the company s strategy is to focus on specific target audiences that tend to be attractive to advertisers . 5 6 7 on december 1 2010 internet brands acquired alllaw.com and attorneylocate.com both originally founded by arvind a. raichur . 8 sec filings indicate that approximately 70 % of the company s revenues are derived from advertising from more than 40 000 accounts most of them small and medium enterprises . the company s portfolio of websites include many with social media features social network services user generated content blogs wikis and internet forums 9 10 with over half a million registered users across forums . owned websites apartment ratings ben s bargains carsdirect corvetteforum craftster doityourself.com dvd talk epodunk fitday flyertalk healthboards model mayhem professional pilots rumour network wahm magazine wikitravel . history edit the company was founded in 1998 as carsdirect.com launched from the business incubator idealab . the company invented a consumer advocacy approach to selling cars haggle free online an approach it continues to employ . 11 in 2000 roger penske invested in the company and joined the board of directors . in 2002 time magazine voted the site one of the 50 best in the world . 12 the company changed its name to internet brands in 2005 . 13 the company s ipo was in november 2007 on the nasdaq exchange . 14 inet was added to the nasdaq internet index on march 22 2010 . 15 internet brands agreed to be acquired for 640 million by the private equity firm hellman & friedman in september 2010 16 17 and was thus delisted from nasdaq . 18 in september 2012 internet brands became involved in a legal battle with the wikimedia foundation the operators of wikipedia over the future of wikitravel s community . 19 20 21 internet brands was acquired in june 2014 by kkr from hellman & friedman for 1.1 billion dollars . 22 kkr is making its investment in partnership with internet brands chief executive officer bob brisco and the internet brands management team who will hold a minority stake in the company and continue to run the business . 23 in january 2016 intuit inc. announced an agreement to sell demandforce to internet brands . 24 controversies edit vbulletin criticism edit in october 2009 internet brands changed the pricing structure for its vbulletin software prompting complaints from registered users on the official forums . according to the register those who complained were then banned from both the forums and from receiving support and updates despite still having valid licences for the product . 25 internet brands defended their position to the register in a separate article ; however a later update to the same article stated that at least some of internet brands claims were false . 26 vbulletin and xenforo edit in october 2010 internet brands announced that it would file a lawsuit against the xenforo team claiming copyright infringement ; specifically that code in xenforo was based on vbulletin code breach of contract and engaging in unfair business practices . 27 in november 2010 internet brands sued kier darby a lead developer of xenforo who had previously served as a lead developer for internet brands vbulletin claiming that kier had not returned confidential information from internet brands regarding the vbulletin software . the xenforo team has denied the claims . 28 in february 2013 the lawsuit was dismissed . 29 wikitravel and wikimedia edit see also wikitravel community fork in 2012 and wikivoyage history in 2012 after a lengthy history of dissatisfaction community members at internet brands owned website wikitravel began discussing whether to fork split off of their work and editing activities from wikitravel and recommence their editing activities at another website host . 30 31 the dissatisfaction related to long standing discontent at poor hosting poor site updates and excessive over monetarization and advertising and eventually interference by internet brands in the community s activities in breach of prior agreements and understandings . 32 forking is a normal or anticipated activity in wiki communities and is permitted by the creative commons license in use on sites such as wikitravel and the wiki software used for wikitravel included the facility to take database dumps for that purpose . 32 this mirrored the fork of the german and italian language wikitravel communities some years earlier which led to a new travel wiki site called wikivoyage . members of the communities concerned decided that the community at wikitravel would move its editing efforts to merge with wikivoyage to create a new travel wiki to be hosted by the wikimedia foundation the owner of wikipedia and a large range of other non profit reference sites based upon a wiki community . 33 34 35 36 the merge and move were endorsed by the editing community 37 but opposed by internet brands who litigated against two users it accused of unlawful actions related to the proposal . the allegations were strongly rejected by the individuals and the non party wikimedia foundation who stated the case was an example of a slapp lawsuit intended to deter and frustrate lawful conduct . 38 on november 19 2012 the claims by internet brands were dismissed by the united states district court for the central district of california . 39 greenlight financial services edit in april 2013 on behalf of its client greenlight financial services inc. the rhema law group won a jury verdict trial against internet brands inc. the orange county superior court jury found that internet brands breached a previous settlement agreement between the parties and awarded lost profits damages in the amount of 750 000 . 40 model mayhem edit main article jane doe no. 14 v. internet brands inc. in may 2008 internet brands bought model mayhem from the original developers donald and taylor waitt . 41 between 2006 and 2011 lavont flanders and emerson callum used model mayhem to contact women arrange to meet them drug them and then rape them while filming them later publishing the video as pornography . 41 42 43 internet brands allege that tyler waitt was aware of the investigation into flanders and callum at the time of the sale and are refusing to pay him for the site . waitt in turn is sued internet brands . 41 42 one of flanders s and callum s vicitims is suing internet brands for failing to notify her of the danger posed by flanders and callum . 41 42 references edit carsdirect.com whois dns & domain info domaintools . whois . retrieved 2016 07 01 . internet brands 2009 sec form 10 k filing . internet brands . secinvestor . point your portfolio to internet brands . seekingalpha . the number one internet stock you ve never heard of . new york times june 26 2006 . as online ads grow eyeballs are valuable again on the web . the new york times . retrieved 2006 06 26 . investopedia . internet brands thrives under google s shadow . retrieved 2008 04 22 . small cap investor . internet brands a step in a different direction . internet brands press release . internet brands acquires assets of alllaw.com and attorneylocate.com . u.s. news and world report . the next internet gold rush . retrieved 2006 08 28 . internet brands . internet brands goes into overdrive web 2.0 company is on a buying binge . retrieved 2008 03 18 . carsdirect . initial test of online car buying . time magazine january 4 2002 . time magazine s 50 best websites . retrieved 2010 05 05 . internet brands . carsdirect becomes internet brands . retrieved 2005 06 16 . internet brands . internet brands ipo data . retrieved 2008 11 21 . agentmonhost . internet brands added to nasdaq internet index . reuters september 20 2010 . internet brands to be acquired for 640 mln . hellman & friedman . internet brands agrees to be acquired by hellman & friedman . taulli tom 2010 09 21 . internet brands goes private again . dailyfinance . retrieved 2013 11 05 . wikimedia foundation seeks declaratory relief in response to legal threats from internet brands . wikimedia foundation . retrieved september 8 2012 . internet brands vs. william ryan holliday pdf . internet brands . retrieved september 8 2012 . wikimedia foundation vs. internet brands pdf . wikimedia foundation . retrieved september 8 2012 . silver elliot june 3 2014 . internet brands to be acquired for 1.1 billion . domaininvesting.com . internet brands to be acquired by kkr . marketwatch . retrieved july 18 2015 . internet brands to acquire demandforce press release . january 15 2016 . forum king vbulletin muzzles paid up protesters . theregister.co.uk . retrieved 2013 11 05 . vbulletin denies busting downloads in paid up protester ban . theregister.co.uk . retrieved 2013 11 05 . metz cade . vbulletin sues ex devs over from scratch competitor . the register . retrieved november 6 2010 . metz cade . forumware giant vbulletin sues ex devs again . the register . retrieved november 6 2010 . newsxf . gracelaw.com . 2013 02 27 . retrieved 2013 11 05 . wikivoyage meta . meta.wikimedia.org . retrieved 2013 11 05 . wikivoyage meta . meta.wikimedia.org . retrieved 2013 11 05 . a b migration faq at wikivoyage 25 october 2012 travellers pub . wikitravel . retrieved 2013 11 05 . wikivoyage meta . meta.wikimedia.org . retrieved 2013 11 05 . wikivoyage association meta . meta.wikimedia.org . retrieved 2013 11 05 . wikivoyage l info page . lists.wikimedia.org . retrieved 2013 11 05 . requests for comment travel guide meta . meta.wikimedia.org . retrieved 2013 11 05 . noam cohen . travel site built on wiki ethos now bedevils its owner . the new york times . internet brands inc versus ryan holliday et al. pdf . united states district court for the central district of california . retrieved 16 december 2012 . rhema law group wins jury trial verdict against internet brands inc. . reuters.com . retrieved 2013 11 05 . a b c d kashmir hill 18 august 2014 . modeling website didn t warn users rapists were preying on them . forbes . retrieved september 15 2015 . a b c allie conti august 26 2015 . the rape victim who is challenging one of the fundamental laws of the internet . vice.com . retrieved september 15 2015 . fbi two men sentenced to multiple life terms for enticing women to south florida to engage in commercial sex acts while under the influence of date rape drugs . https . february 17 2012 . retrieved september 15 2015 . retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title internet brands & oldid 744052432 categories