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John Battelle's online-ad rep firm, Federated Media, has hired a small investment bank, Savvian LLC, to "manage investor interest," according to a source close to the company. What does that mean? Hopefully Battelle wasn't giving interested investors his customary greeting, shown here. FM sells advertising and performs other services for blogs in specific subject areas. It's especially strong in tech, representing TechCrunch, GigaOm, and VentureBeat, among others. Online ad networks are fashionable among investors right now, so it's possible Federated could be entertaining buyout offers. But Battelle's choice of a banker is curious: Savvian is known for helping companies in dire straits. It's also known for getting smaller media companies sold to larger ones — such as BeliefNet, recently purchased by News Corp. with Savvian's help.