Wheeling and Dealing for IT Advertising and Aussie Ads

Acquisitions abound this week, as two IT trade publications made deals to increase their knowledge base for advertising’s technical folks and bring in new ad dollars, while an American firm shored up its Australian banner ad offerings.

TechTarget announced the acquisition of KnowledgeStorm for approximately $58 million. KnowledgeStorm is a search resource for IT professionals that generates around 3.5 million visits per month, according to the company. TechTarget is also getting access to its 700 active advertisers.

Separately, CNET Networks agreed to buy FindArticles.com from LookSmart in an all cash transaction of approximately $20.5 million. FindArticles.com stores over 11 million resource articles from over 3,000 sources, including magazines, journals, trade publications and newspapers, according to the company, and CNET intends to capitalize on providing the premium content draw for advertisers.

Meanwhile down under, Adknowledge acquired the U.K. and Australian divisions of Media Run, an online advertising network focused on banner advertising with approximately 30 employees. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Adknowledge intends to add its behavioral targeting technologies to Media Run’s ad network, and will do away with the Media Run name.