By Owen Thomas, 4:07 AM on Wed May 7 2008, 1,085 views (Edit post, Set to draft, Slurp)

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Spot Runner, the Los Angeles-based TV-advertising startup, is just the latest to follow past rounds of fundraising with another quick grab for money. The company has raised $51 million from a group of international media investors — not the Sand Hill Road club, but corporate names like Grupo Televisa and LVMH. Why raise more money now? None of the entrepreneurs raising outsized rounds are uncouth enough to say that they are raising money simply because they can. Spot Runner CEO Nick Grouf says the company is "raising a war chest." Sure, Google may eventually stop fumbling around and find an approach to brokering television ads that works. But one has to think Grouf is less concerned with an all-out battle against the armies of Mountain View, and more with making hay while the sun shines. (Photo by Glenn Koenig/Los Angeles Times)