Rocket Fuel brought down to earth; releases "malvertising" screener

Shares in glamor stock Rocket Fuel Inc (NASDAQ:FUEL) fell to earth as investors picked over its first quarter results, released after the end of closing yesterday.

Revenue eased 9% to US$95.2mln from US$104.7mln the year before, with revenue from North American 12% lower at US$74.8mln.

The programmatic marketing platform operator posted an underlying loss (LBITDA) of US$2.6mln, more or less unchanged year-on-year.

The shares tanked 35% but remain up 88% year-to-date.

The shares leveled out in the afternoon session as the company announced a new solution to fight so-called “malvertising” – adverts that are designed to hack into the computer systems of those that click on them.

“Malvertising and those who perpetuate it have been a huge problem for the digital advertising industry for years,” said Randy Wootton, chief executive officer of Rocket Fuel.

Cyber-criminals rent out advertising slots on legitimate networks in the hope of getting their malware onto users’ computers.

Well-known web sites such as the Daily Mail, Huffington Post and Yahoo! have all fallen victim to the practice.

Rocket Fuel’s platform will use Google Translate to copy foreign ads to detect suspicious looking ads and to screen them for malware.

Rocket Fuel said it initially built its platform to comply with DoubleClick Ad Exchange’s strict requirements. After seeing its success, the platform was rolled out to all of Rocket Fuel’s inventory partners, now representing more than half a billion impressions per day.

Story by ProactiveInvestors