PageFair, the Dublin-based ad-blocking analytics firm, is being wound up after it was bought by a Canadian peer Blockthrough in late 2018.

Founded in 2012 by Sean Blanchfield (pictured), Brian McDonnell and Neil O’Connor, PageFair provided an analytics service that enabled website managers to measure how many site visitors are blocking ads.

The company also operated a system that helped get ads displayed that would have otherwise been blocked by popular ad-blocking software. PageFair took a fee from the additional advertising revenue that it unlocks for websites.

Blanchfield headed up PageFair, which also published popular annual reports on global ad-blocking trends. New Canadian owner Blockthrough operates in the same ad-blocking space, charging companies to get their ads past ad-blocking software.

Blockthrough was founded in 2015 by Martin Kratzy-Katz. His firm acquired PageFair in November 2018 for an undisclosed sum.

PageFair’s most recent balance sheet filings are for 2017, when it booked a loss of €670,000, bringing accumulated losses to €3m. The firm’s backers include Tribal Ventures, Frontline Ventures and Enterprise Ireland, the latter having invested €240,000.

Long-term creditors were owed €2.6m by PageFair, according to its 2017 balance sheet. The funds came to the business in the form of convertible loan notes, which are due for repayment in June 2020.

In the Members Voluntary Winding Up Declaration of Solvency, the directors state that total liabilities on 10 April 2019 amounted to €241,662 and total assets amounted to the same amount. The estimated surplus after paying debts in full is €0.00.