WPP Takes Stake in Omniture January 29, 2009
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentThe agreement is a testament to Martin Sorrell’s belief that ad holding companies must branch out beyond their traditional expertise
NEW YORK WPP Group and Omniture have concluded a collaboration agreement through which the holding company will invest $25 million in the analytics firm.
The firms agreed to work together on product development, with WPP shops like OgilveyOne, Wunderman, Enfatico, GroupM and 24/7 Real Media participating.
The plan calls for WPP in 12-18 months to shift its own technology and data products onto Omniture’s platform. This includes 24/7’s ad-serving systems and TNS’ data collection platforms.
The agreement is a testament to WPP CEO Martin Sorrell’s belief that ad holding companies must branch out beyond their traditional expertise in media and creative. (WPP spent $649 million to buy ad serving firm and network 24/7 Real Media in May 2007.)
“In the current economic environment and as clients continue to experiment with and develop their online budgets, the need for better analysis, measurement and focus on return on investment is more important than ever,” Sorrell said in a statement.
WPP bought 2.8 million units of Omniture common stock at $8.76 per share. Based on Omniture’s outstanding shares, WPP will own about 3 percent of the company.
Omniture’s shares this morning opened at $9.44. The firm also issued a warrant giving WPP the option to purchase more shares if undisclosed performance objectives are met.
Read The Rest—>WPP Takes Stake in Omniture
Time Warner's Bewkes: AOL Talks Ongoing December 11, 2008
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentTime Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes said Wednesday the company is working hard on a possible deal involving AOL and aims to resolve talks on the Web portal’s fate “fairly soon.”
During a keynote address at the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference in New York, Bewkes emphasized the relative overall stability of Time Warner’s film, TV and magazine businesses while acknowledging weakness in display advertising on AOL and in print ad sales.
With the full spinoff of its cable unit on track to close by early next year, he also said that Time Warner would return to its roots as a “branded content company.”
How–or whether–AOL fits into the company’s plans is still unclear. Negotiations over an outright sale of AOL, or a smaller-scale deal involving the portal, have been ongoing for months variously with Yahoo, Microsoft and Google.
Read The Rest—>Time Warner’s Bewkes: AOL Talks Ongoing
Digg: Not for Sale December 2, 2008
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentThe news aggregation site’s CEO, Jay Adelson, spelled out Digg’s drive for profitability
Over the last few years, Digg has become Silicon Valley’s version of the boy who cried wolf. Like the child who warned local villagers that a wolf was about to attack his flock of sheep, potential buyers of Digg have repeatedly leaked reports that the company was about to be sold, but a sale was never consummated.
Not anymore. In an interview withBusinessWeek, Digg Chief Executive Officer Jay Adelson says the popular news aggregation Web site is no longer for sale, and the focus of the company is to build an independent business that reaches profitability as quickly as possible. That means the four-year-old startup will dial back some of its expansion plans, instead prioritizing projects that generate revenue and profit.
Read The Rest—>Digg: Not for Sale
Google gives online life to Life mag's photos November 19, 2008
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentMOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.—Google Inc. has opened an online photo gallery that will feature millions of images from Life magazine’s archives that have never been seen by the public before.
The new service, available at http://images.google.com/hosted/life, debuted Tuesday with about 2 million photos. Eventually, Google plans to scan all 10 million photos from Life’s library so they can be viewed on any computer with an Internet connection.
About 97 percent of Life’s archives have not been publicly seen, according to Life.
The photos can be printed out for free as long as they aren’t being used as part of an attempt to make money. Time Warner Inc., Life’s parent company, hopes to make money by selling high-resolution, framed prints. The orders will be processed through Qoop.com.
Read The Rest—>Google gives online life to Life mag’s photos
Microsoft's Ballmer `Done' With Talks to Buy Yahoo (Update2) November 19, 2008
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentBy Dina Bass and Crayton Harrison
Nov. 19 (Bloomberg) — Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer said all acquisition talks with Yahoo! Inc. are “done,” even after Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang announced plans to step down. Yahoo fell as much as 20 percent in Nasdaq trading.
“We thought we had something that made sense. Didn’t make sense to them. We’ve moved on,” Ballmer, 52, said today at a shareholder meeting in Bellevue, Washington. He reiterated that a partnership between Microsoft and Yahoo in the Internet-search market is an “an interesting possibility.” There are no talks about such an agreement, he said today.
Read The Rest—>Microsoft’s Ballmer `Done’ With Talks to Buy Yahoo (Update2)
Jerry Yang, Yahoo Chief, Steps Down November 19, 2008
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentSAN FRANCISCO — Jerry Yang, who, as chief executive of Yahoo, resisted a takeover bid from Microsoft only to later ask that merger talks resume, said he was stepping down.
In a memorandum sent to the company’s staff Monday evening, Mr. Yang, 40, said he would hold the post until the board names his successor, a process he said he would participate in. The Yahoo co-founder said he would then return to his previous job as “chief Yahoo,” a corporate strategy role, and would remain on the board.
In a memorandum typed in his style using no capital letters, he wrote, “i strongly believe that having transformed our platform and better aligned costs and revenues, we have a unique window for the right ceo to take ownership over the next wave of mission-critical decisions facing the company.”
The announcement comes a year and a half after Mr. Yang assumed control of Yahoo from Terry Semel, a Hollywood studio boss that he handpicked for the job. Mr. Yang’s tenure has been marked by a precipitously declining stock price and the high profile collapse of a $44 billion acquisition offer from Microsoft last spring.
A Yahoo spokesman described the decision as “mutual” and “in progress for a while.”
Read The Rest—> Jerry Yang, Yahoo Chief, Steps Down
Gannett acquires social media provider Ripple6 November 14, 2008
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentMcLean, Va.—News company Gannett Co. has acquired Ripple6, a provider of social media platforms for customer engagement and social marketing.
Read The Rest—> Gannett acquires social media provider Ripple6
Nokia buys social networking site Plazes November 12, 2008
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentHELSINKI – The world’s top cellphone maker Nokia said on Monday it has agreed to buy social networking start-up Plazes as part of its major push into offering Internet services.
Plazes (http://www.plazes.com/) provides location-aware services that people can use to plan, record, and share their social activities.
Nokia did not disclose the value of the deal.
Read The Rest Here—> Nokia buys social networking site Plazes
Yahoo Puts 'For Sale' Sign Back on Front Lawn – MarketingVOX November 7, 2008
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentIt was the plea heard ’round the world: “To this day the best thing for Microsoft to do is buy Yahoo.”
Jerry Yang — now openly referred to as “beleaguered” and “embattled” by the media — told a packed ballroom at the Web 2.0 summit in San Francisco that the company could still be bought — at the right price “whatever that price is,” the BBC reported.
The much-criticized CEO attempted to shed some light on the dramatic events of the summer.
Yahoo was ready to negotiate Microsoft’s $44.6 billion takeover bid, he said, but Microsoft “walked away” from the table and has since been clear about its disinterest in buying the entire company, he said. (They later offered to buy just the search portion, but were refused.)
Read The Rest—> Yahoo Puts ‘For Sale’ Sign Back on Front Lawn – MarketingVOX
MediaBank Acquires MediaPlex, Picks Up Doner, Martin Agency, Others October 21, 2008
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentIn a move that helps consolidate the fringe players competing against the dominant media buying processing provider, Donovan Data Systems, upstart MediaBank has acquired Mediaplex Systems from ValueClick. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the deal expands MediaBank’s market share, and gives it more impetus in its quest to unseat DDS. MediaBank did not say what the acquisition does to its market share in the media industry, but its CEO Brad Keywell said it “expands our footprint” and “takes us from being a strong No. 2 to being an even stronger No. 2.” In the process, MediaBank gains an organization of 80 people, most of whom Keywell said would be retained by MediaBank, as well as a variety of data processing systems for managing most major media, digital asset management, production and accounting. He said the best of MediaPlex’s systems would be incorporated into MediaBank, and best of MediaBank’s technology would augment MediaPlex. Over time, MediaBank will re-brand MediaPlex products as MediaBank’s and the MediaPlex name will go away. Some of the big agencies MediaBank gains from the acquisition include Doner, and The Martin Agency, as well as a number of smaller independents, and a number of smaller advertisers who buy direct through in-house advertising departments. The deal also marks yet another chapter in the storied history of a media buying system provider that began life in the 1970s as part of what was once the largest advertising agency in Kentucky, Zimmer-McClaskey-Lewis (ZML). ZML was purchased by McCann-Erickson in 1981 and the media buying system became known as the Mnn Erickson system. In 200, the system was sold to MediaPlex, and in 2001 MediaPlex merged with online marketing services giant ValueClick.
| Joe Mandese is Editor of MediaPost. |
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