RushmoreDrive to shut down after Sahara Media purchase offer is rejected

By Ken Smikle
Target Market News
(June 10, 2009) One year after it backed the launching of RushmoreDrive.com, a search engine aimed at the interests of African-Americans, Interactive Corp. has announced that it will shut down operations on Friday, June 12.

Target Market News has confirmed through sources familiar with the negotiations that the closure comes after IAC rejected an offer from Sahara Media Holdings, Inc. to buy Black Web Enterprises, the company which owns and operated RushmoreDrive and was backed by Barry Diller's multimedia company, IAC.

Sahara Media, Inc. is the wholly owned subsidiary of Sahara Media Holdings, Inc., which purchased the Honey Magazine trademark and archives from Vanguard Media in 2005. The company's founder, Philmore Anderson IV completed that deal by raising $10 million through privately placed securities.

Following the rejection of the offer by Sahara Media, BWE CEO, Johnny C. Taylor (above), announced his resignation last Friday, June 9. In his statement posted on BlackWeb 2.0, Taylor said, "As you all know, I've been working around the clock on a deal to sell RushmoreDrive.com to another company interested in the search business. We were very fortunate to have found a buyer who was willing to pay a good price, but IAC was unwilling to accept the terms."

RushmoreDrive was launched last April as a "first-of-a-kind" search engine that emphasized links to content of particular interest to African-Americans. It was one of a number of the  48 Web operations under IAC's corporate umbrella that the company has shuttered recently due to declines in advertising revenue.

Ironically, the demise of RushmoreDrive comes as other major media companies are showing increased interest in developing Web content and digital media targeted to African-American consumers. NBC Universal this week launched theGriot.com, a "video-centric" site that aggregates news content from its vast network of stations and affiliates.


Go to Target Market News homepage

 

 IN JUST 3 WEEKS  - SAVE $100!







Insights to Increase
Your Share of a
Changing African-
American Market
 
By Pepper Miller
and Herb Kemp

African Americans have more influence on today's culture and taste than any other ethnic group in the world. What's Black About It? is a new book with a fresh perspective on changing the views of corporate America and how they market to the African-American consumer.

This book presents historical, psychological, and cultural influences that delve far deeper into the Black experience than other ethnic marketing books which may only include a general chapter or two on Black consumers

Click here to order



_________________________________________________________________________________________

The African-American
Book Publishing Authority

Now in its ninth year of publication, Black Issues Book Review is the only nationally distributed magazine devoted exclusively to covering the latest news and reviews on black books. BIBR also provides up-to-date news on forthcoming author signings, book fairs and book clubs.
Want this issue? Get it with your new subscription.
Click Here

A TARGET MARKET NEWS PUBLICATION
_________________________