Gurbaksh Chahal
Gurbaksh Chahal | |
|---|---|
| File:Gc-quality.jpg Business 2.0 October 2006 Covershoot | |
| Born | July 17th, 1982 |
| Occupation(s) | Founder, Chairman & CEO, BlueLithium |
| Spouse | Unmarried |
| Website | [1] |
Gurbaksh Chahal (born July 17, 1982) is one of the youngest and one of the most successful internet entrepreneurs of recent history.
Chahal was born in the town of Tarn Taran, in Punjab, India to Avtar and Arjinder Chahal. He emigrated to the United States at the age of 4 with his family and settled in San Jose, California. Chahal has created companies worth over $340 million by the age of 25.
Chahal went to public schools all throughout his early life in San Jose. He went to Independence High School for two years but soon after enrolled in Accel Middle College which allowed him to enter college while finishing his high school degree. On December of 1998, at the age of 16, he dropped out of Accel Middle College to start his first venture ClickAgents. ClickAgents was a first-generation ad network focused on performance-based advertising. Two years later, on November 1st 2000, ValueClick announced it agreed to buy ClickAgents in a $40 million all-stock merger. [2] Chahal had a three year non-compete with ValueClick. He was 18 years old at the time.
On January 12 2004 he founded BlueLithium. BlueLithium was an ad network focused on data, optimization, analytics and a pioneer of behavioral targeting. He has been recognized as an innovator in the online advertising space by Business 2.0 [3] as well as a sought-after speaker, featured at conferences including Red Herring, JP Morgan, Bear Stearns and Ad:Tech. Under his leadership, BlueLithium was named one of the top 100 private companies in America three years in a row by AlwaysOn. [4]
On September 4th 2007, Yahoo! announced that it has agreed to buy BlueLithium for $300 million in cash. [5]
He remains CEO of the company through the transition period. Chahal currently resides in San Jose, California.