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Dave Morgan Joins The Tennis Company As Chairman and Partner

Santa Monica — Dave Morgan, the founder of Real Media and TACODA, has become Chairman of - and a partner in - The Tennis Company, it was announced today by Bob Miller, President & CEO of The Tennis Company. The Tennis Company owns TENNIS.com, TENNIS and SMASH Magazines, and partners in the Pacific Life Open and the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. The Pacific Life Open is the world’s fifth largest tennis tournament and the largest independent tournament in the world after the four Grand Slams. Mr. Morgan will be based in the company’s New York City office.

“Bringing Dave on board signals our shift from being just a magazine company with a website to a true multi-platform sports enthusiast media company. TENNIS.com will no longer just be a site to complement our magazine. It will be the primary driver of our business and will lead us into a future that will be driven by digital video on a global basis always keeping tennis enthusiasts first,” says Mr. Miller, who is the former head of Time, Inc. Ventures, and a principle of The Tennis Company along with George Mackin, Chris Evert and Pete Sampras.

“Tennis is an underleveraged sport with amazing numbers. Enthusiasts are international, affluent, active, passionate, loyal and most importantly, are growing,” says Mr. Morgan. “The Tennis Company has great assets thanks to Bob’s visionary leadership including the #1 magazine with Chris Evert as its publisher, the #1 content website, and a piece of the #1 independent tournament in the world. The company is poised for future growth with cross-platform delivery of premium branded content and digital media growth around the world.”

Mr. Morgan, 44, founded TACODA in 2001 which became the world’s largest and most advanced behavioral targeting advertising network. He served as CEO until he was promoted to Chairman in 2006. After the acquisition of TACODA by AOL in 2007 for $275 million, Mr. Morgan spent six months as AOL’s Executive Vice President-Global Advertising Strategy helping to develop its Platform A ad strategy.

Prior to TACODA, from 1995 to 2001, Mr. Morgan founded and was the Chairman/CEO of Real Media, Inc. Under his leadership, the company grew from a start-up to a $54 million global marketing technology and services company of 580 employees in 25 offices in 19 countries. A lawyer by training, Mr. Morgan served as General Counsel and Director of New Media Ventures for the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association from 1991 to 1995, where he helped launch more than a dozen new media businesses.

Mr. Morgan is a regular columnist and contributor to a number of leading industry publications, including MediaPost, AdAge.com and iMedia Connection. He is active in a number of industry trade groups and currently serves on the board of directors of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). Mr. Morgan is also involved in various ways with early stage technology start ups.

The Tennis Company (tennis.com) is world’s largest independent media company focusing exclusively on the tennis enthusiasts regularly reaching more than 5 million tennis enthusiasts around the world. It publishes TENNIS Magazine, the #1 tennis publication, SMASH Magazine, the #1 tennis publication for youths and teens, TENNIS.com, the #1 tennis content website, and is a strategic investor in the annual Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, California and the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, the world’s second largest tennis stadium. Working with all these assets, and more, The Tennis Company can provide unique, integrated, multi-media marketing opportunities for advertising partners. Principals in The Tennis Company and its assets include Bob Miller, Dave Morgan George Mackin, Chris Evert, Billy Jean King and Pete Sampras.

Posted on June 3, 2008
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