Dow Jones Venture Wire - April 6, 2006
SiteAdvisor, McAfee's Latest Acquisition, Incubated at Bessemer
by Erika R. Davis
Incubated by Bessemer Venture Partners, Web security company SiteAdvisor Inc. has been sold to McAfee Inc. less than a year after it commenced operations.
Financial terms of the deal weren't disclosed.
SiteAdvisor was founded in April 2005 and the deal closed this month. In January Bessemer and General Catalyst Partners co-led SiteAdvisor's Series A round, declining to reveal an amount.
SiteAdvisor Chief Executive Chris Dixon was a Bessemer senior associate for two years, leaving in early 2005 to devote himself full-time to SiteAdvisor.
"What can be more exciting than to have an idea born in your office, Chris describing his vision on our white aboard, his finding the team, our being able to back them, and then having such tremendous success," Bessemer General Partner Rob Stavis said.
SiteAdvisor Inc.'s consumer software tests and rates Web sites for safety, helping users make informed decisions about which sites to visit. Using proprietary technology enhanced by user feedback, SiteAdvisor claims to have tested and rated 95% of the highest-trafficked Internet Web sites, amounting to 2.7 million sites.
When the user searches on Google, Yahoo or MSN, SiteAdvisor displays a visual safety rating - red, yellow or green - for each searched site. The service only works with the above Web sites. Safety is judged by how much spam, adware or viruses SiteAdvisor received when it tested the site. Along with the color, SiteAdvisor details why it rated a site a particular color by showing how much spam it received when signing up for a site, for example.
SiteAdvisor also works when the user is not performing a search. In that case, as the user surfs the Internet, a small SiteAdvisor icon is displayed on the browser toolbar, changing color based on SiteAdvisor's safety rating for each site.
At first, the idea of safety-rating every Internet site was controversial in Bessemer offices. "There were questions as to whether it was feasible," Stavis said.
History says it was, and now with McAfee behind SiteAdvisor, Stavis believes this product will end up on one hundred million desktops.
SiteAdvisor released a beta version of its software on Dec. 1 with an official public launch slated March 1. So far it counts 450,000 free software downloads, a McAfee spokesman said.
"We discovered SiteAdvisor's beta software in December and became interested," said Bill Kerrigan, executive vice president of McAfee's consumer division. "We saw it as complimentary to McAfee." The two companies evaluated multiple ideas, but an acquisition made the most sense, he said.
SiteAdvisor will become part of McAfee's consumer division. McAfee will hire SiteAdvisor's 16 employees and use its facilities. The current SiteAdvisor software will remain free to consumers on its Web site for now. McAfee is also creating a new offering around safe search using SiteAdvisor's software and service, Kerrigan said.