Raise capital. Acquire a smaller competitor for their team and/or technology ... and then scale out. It's a well-known cycle; both startups and established companies tend to do it when they're ready to enter a new market, or just attain new revenue goals.

In the case of AudienceScience, the funding came last October. The online targeting technology firm and ad network raised $20 million in funding from a roster of Silicon Valley backers, including Mayfield Fund and Mohr, Davidow Ventures. At the time, CEO Jeff Hirsch said that the company would use the money to "aggressively extend" its market presence in the U.S. and abroad.

Since then, AudienceScience has opened up new offices in the U.S., hired new heads of sales for Asia and the U.K., and even launched a U.K.-based ad network. The company also spent some cash to snag well-known execs like Denise Colella, formerly VP, International at Yahoo's RightMedia, and ValueClick alum Jeff Pullen. Money to burn ... but could all those new bodies be worth $20 million? Not quite -- and that's where an acquisition comes in.

AudienceScience gobbles up Consorte Media

AudienceScience has acquired Consorte Media, a Hispanic-focused ad network and lead-generation company. Hirsch wouldn't talk pricing, but SEC filings show that S.F.-based Consorte raised at least $10 million in funding since its inception in 2005. Worth noting is that Mayfield Fund was also an investor in Consorte's most recent round in 2007.

The Consorte team -- which Hirsch said includes about seven employees -- will join AudienceScience. The company will retain the Consorte brand as part of its product lineup. "We'll definitely take advantage of the name as part of our offering," Hirsch said. "Consorte built up a quality business, and has fantastic relationships with advertisers."

Founder and CEO Alicia Morga will "help with the transition" and then leave the company, Hirsch said. A former VC herself, it will be interesting to see whether she launches another ad-related company -- and whether it taps into the red-hot Hispanic digital market.

Growing a new revenue stream

How hot is it? According to the Research and Markets report cited in the release touting AudienceScience's acquisition: U.S. Hispanic purchasing power is projected to reach as much as $1.3 trillion by 2015 -- or around 12 percent of purchasing power in the U.S. overall. Yes ... that hot.

But it seems that marketers aren't really tapping into that market via digital or traditional means. According to a survey of senior marketers at 9,300 companies nationwide, 82 percent of marketers say they have no plans to start or ramp up existing Hispanic marketing efforts (per Mediapost).

Contrast that with statistics that show that Hispanic digital "influencers" spend more time interacting with others online than the general population (per Consorte Media) and it might leave you scratching your head. Why aren't advertisers tapping this market?

Hirsch says its about scale. "There aren't many options for marketers that want to reach U.S. Hispanic users online in both English and Spanish in a scalable way," he said.

There's Terra USA, a division of Spain-based Terra Networks (which itself is a division of Telefonica Group) -- but AudienceScience partnered with Terra to enable behavioral targeting across its roster of sites in 2006. Meanwhile, both AudienceScience and Consorte Media specialize in targeting, giving the newly-combined companies a distinct advantage over other smaller networks.

Hirsch said the goal is to make it easy for marketers to target Hispanic users across its network, and deliver the appropriate-language ad for the site and user. No read on how many sites the acquisition adds to AudienceScience's network, but the company says it boosts monthly uniques by over 14 million.

AudienceScience has offered Japanese-language behavioral targeting for companies like NIKKEI since it went international in 2006 -- but this will be its first owned-and-operated bilingual ad network.