Beverly Hills-based Hydra Media , the cost-per-action (CPA) advertising network, has new funding in hand and legal issues behind it, and is now looking upmarket, the firm told socalTECH in an interview Thursday. Hydra--which according to Cooperman had 2008 revenues of over $100M--saw a retrenchment in revenues in 2009 as it shifted its customer base--but Cooperman says it hopes the firm will be in the same revenue ballpark as it was in 2008 and 2009, and up from there in 2011. How The ad network--which announced a restructuring and buyout by an investment group led by founder Zac Brandenberg earlier this week--is now looking to court more major advertisers and large brands.

Deloitte, which ranks these every year (disclaimer: Deloitte recently became a sponsor of socalTECH, though that has no influence in our coverage), uses the five year revenue numbers of companies to create their listing. The firm started out in 2004 with revenues of $100,000; the company reported it had revenues in 2008 of nearly $146.7M. Perusing the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 list for this year — the ranking of the fastest growing companies in North America , based on the last five years of revenue–it’s quite surprising to note the sheer number of Southern California firms listed.

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