Ibiquity Raises $45 Million

Ibiquity Digital Corp. has raised $45 million and says its business is now fully funded. It also gained a new investor, Susquehanna Radio Corp., the nation’s 11th largest broadcaster. Most of Ibiquity’s existing investors contributed additional funds, with Grotech, JP Morgan Partners, New Venture Partners and Pequot Capital leading the latest round of financing, called “Series C.”
This is the last planned round of private equity funding and it raised the most money for the company in its history. Ibiquity President/CEO Robert Struble said the money raised through the stock sale would be more than enough to get the company to profitability, which Ibiquity expects would be late 2003.
The price investors paid for the stock was undisclosed.
The money from this round of financing is slated to pay for Ibiquity’s operational expenses and for commercialization of its technology. Ibiquity hopes to transition about 100 stations to digital by the end of this year and introduce IBOC receivers at the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2003.
With the addition of Susquehanna, 14 of the largest U.S. broadcasters now own a portion of Ibiquity.
“Through Susquehanna’s involvement with the National Radio Systems Committee, we’ve seen and heard first-hand the benefits of Ibiquity’s IBOC technology for broadcasters and consumers,” said David Kennedy, president/COO, Susquehanna Radio Corp. “IBOC is the digital future of AM and FM radio.”