An out-of-town entrepreneur was surprised to hear that Federated Media, John Battelle's ad network, was deemed "overdue" in raising a new round of venture capital. He had been operating on the assumption that Federated, which, for all its travails, has broken into some big advertising accounts, had no need of external funding. "I figured they were just making money. But, apparently, not getting more VC is some kind of social faux pas in Silicon Valley."

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