Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , by Joe Mandese
A little more than a week after canceling a promising new out-of-home television audience measurement service due to concerns about the “current economic environment,” Nielsen has canceled plans for its annual client meeting in 2009. The event, which was set to take place March 11-13 in Las Vegas, has grown to be something of a boondoggle in recent years–in which Nielsen wined, dined and entertained clients, and spent more time promoting its vision and new products than discussing serious methodological issues surrounding its measurement of media audiences.
Read The Rest—> Nielsen Cancels National Client Meeting, Cites Economy
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , McLean, 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
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , New York—Citing the worsening economy, JPMorgan Chase lowered its forecast for online display advertising in the U.S. to $8.2 billion this year, down from an earlier projection of $8.6 billion.
JPMorgan projects online display advertising will total $9.4 billion in 2009, down from an earlier forecast of $10.0 billion.
It also lowered its forecast for search advertising. Search is now expected to grow 27% this year, down from an earlier projection of 32%. Next year, search is forecast to grow by 26%.
—Kate Maddox
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , Yahoo announced Thursday it has appointed two new directors from a dissident slate put together by Carl Icahn during his attempt to take control of the Internet giant through an aborted proxy battle.
Yahoo said it selected Frank Biondi, former chief executive of Viacom and Universal Studios, and John Chapple, former chief executive of Nextel Partners, for their extensive experience in the media and telecommunication industries.
Yahoo agreed to make the appointments in exchange for Icahn dropping his proxy challenge. Icahn himself was appointed to the board immediately following the annual meeting on Aug. 1. He replaced Robert Kotick, who resigned.
Icahn tried but failed to get Yahoo to replace other board members in order to increase his leverage and try to sell the company to Microsoft. Instead, Yahoo agreed to expand the board from nine to 11 people.
Biondi and Chapple are potential, but not certain, allies for Icahn. Biondi was Icahn’s candidate to replace Richard Parsons as chief executive of Time Warner during Icahn’s unsuccessful proxy fight with the media giant in 2006. At the time, Icahn said he had only met Biondi once before.
Biondi is currently a senior managing director of WaterView Advisors, a private equity firm, and Chapple is president of Hawkeye Investments.
Ryan Jacob, chief investment officer of Jacob Asset Management, said Icahn’s best bet may be to wait until next year, when the board is up for re-election again.
“A year from now we will be talking about how much less share in search they have,” said Jacob, who still owns Yahoo but feels burned by the way its management bungled the bid from Microsoft.
Jacob said he would not be surprised if Yahoo’s stock drops to the mid-teens if the company fails to make its financial targets. At that point, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer is likely to bid again. “In his heart of hearts, he knows it makes strategic sense to bite the bullet,” Jacob said.
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , BATAVIA, Ohio (AdAge.com) — Procter & Gamble Co. Global Marketing Officer Jim Stengel is stepping down, the company announced, to be replaced by Marc Pritchard, 48, former head of P&G’s cosmetics business and who most recently oversaw a stepped-up global restructuring effort for the company.
Mr. Stengel, 53, has been P&G’s global marketing officer since 2001 and oversees the company’s $5.3 billion marketing budget. He will retire Oct. 31 after 25 years at the company. Until that time, effective Aug. 1, Mr. Stengel will work on special projects, continuing to report to Chief Operating Officer Robert McDonald.
For more on this breaking story, please CLICK HERE
For more great AdAge content including newsletters please CLICK HERE TO GO TO ADAGE.COM
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , Microsoft Offers to Buy Yahoo Search: Source
New deal represents an alternative means of competing with rival Google
May 20, 2008
Microsoft Corp has proposed to buy Yahoo Inc’s search business and take a minority stake in the Web pioneer, stopping short of a full-out merger, a person familiar with the discussions said on Monday.
As part of the deal Yahoo would put its Asian assets, including significant minority stakes in Yahoo Japan and China’s Alibaba Group, up for sale, while Microsoft would buy a chunk of what remains of the company, the source said.
The talks were revealed by the two companies on Sunday, but they declined to reveal the terms of the discussions. Earlier this month, Microsoft walked away from a proposal to acquire Yahoo for $47.5 billion, or $33 per share, after Yahoo rebuffed the offer, saying it would only settle for $37 a share.
The new deal, if completed, would forge an alliance between the two companies that would represent an alternative means of competing with rival Google Inc, whose ubiquitous search engine has made it an online advertising powerhouse.
The proposal represents an outline of Microsoft’s current thinking and it does not yet put a value on Yahoo’s search business, said the source, who was not authorized to speak on the record because the discussions are confidential.
Microsoft and Yahoo representatives declined to comment.
Shares of Yahoo fell as much as 0.87 percent on Monday, before closing up 2 cents at $27.68 on Nasdaq. Microsoft dropped 1.8 percent to $29.46.
Collins Stewart analyst Sandeep Aggarwal estimates Yahoo’s search advertising business is worth about $21 billion, while putting the value of its international assets at $9.25 billion, according to a research note he published on Monday. Anupreeta Das, Reuters, reports
Moustache madness sweeps Germany
Apr. 19 – German beard and moustache championship draws more than 100 men from various countries to compete for most extravagant look.
Organised by the Eastern Bavarian Beard and Moustache Club, the event drew competitors from many countries including Britain, Germany and Switzerland.
.
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , Sarah Fay to Take Over as CEO, North America(Via Advertising Age)
Published: April 21, 2008
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — David Verklin, CEO of Aegis Media Americas and one of the advertising industry’s most visible figures, is stepping down from his role later this year, his 10th at Aegis Media. Sarah Fay will take over as CEO North America.
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , By Kenneth Li
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Microsoft Corp won an estimated $500 million, 5-year Internet advertising deal with MTV Networks owner Viacom Inc, giving the software giant a boost against rivals Google Inc and Yahoo Inc.
Microsoft will help Viacom place advertising on its network of entertainment Web sites in the U.S., such as MTV.com. Microsoft will also be the exclusive seller in the U.S. of remnant display advertising, which is ad space that Viacom has been unable to sell, company executives said on Wednesday.
The deal replaces online ad firm DoubleClick, whose services Viacom currently employs among other partners. Google, which Viacom sued for $1 billion for copyright infringement, is set to purchase DoubleClick for $3.1 billion.
The broad agreement involves Viacom’s online games, television shows and films. Microsoft will license long- and short-form television and movies from Viacom for Microsoft’s MSN Internet network and its Xbox 360 game system’s online network.
The deal is seen as a coup for Microsoft’s Atlas advertising platform as it makes inroads against Google Inc and Yahoo Inc in the overall online advertising business, which Microsoft has estimated at $80 billion by 2010.
Each company has raced to purchase new advertising businesses and lock in exclusive agreements.
Yahoo signed a deal in April with Viacom to provide search advertising for 33 of its Web sites, which remains in place. Viacom’s properties include the Paramount movie studio, and MTV and Comedy Central cable television networks.
Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft in August made its biggest purchase ever in the $6 billion acquisition of digital ad firm aQuantive in an effort to transform into one of the Web’s top two players in the online ad market in three to five years.
About 50 Web publishers have signed on to use Microsoft’s ad platform since it announced the aQuantive deal in May, said Kevin Johnson, Microsoft’s president of platforms and services. “This deal is another milestone in our quest to build a world-class advertising platform,” he said in a phone interview.
In October, Microsoft sealed the exclusive rights to sell ads outside of the United States for Facebook, and it also purchased a small stake in the popular Internet social network.
As part of the Viacom deal, Microsoft also agreed to buy ads on the media company’s broadcast and online networks over five years and to help Viacom establish itself as a publishing partner on Microsoft’s casual Internet gaming sites.
“We are always in discussion with Microsoft,” Viacom Chief Executive Philippe Dauman said in a phone interview. “This broad-based relationship will lead to conversations in other business areas.”
Responding to a question of what other areas, Dauman said video games development could be one arena in which the two companies could work together.
Viacom, which also announced on Wednesday a splashy development deal with “Pirates of the Caribbean” and “Top Gun” producer Jerry Bruckheimer, sees online games and those played on game systems as a major pillar of growth.
“What impressed me was the extent to which Microsoft is making the commitment, technological, financial and otherwise to be a winner in this space,” Dauman said.
Microsoft shares were up 20 cents to $34.94 in early trading on the Nasdaq, while Viacom shares were up 1.8 percent, or 76 cents, at $43.83 on the New York Stock Exchange.
(Reporting by Kenneth Li; Editing by Steve Orlofsky and Derek Caney)
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , Former Nissan marketing chief Jan Thompson has joined the Omnicom Groups Diversified Agency Services. She will be involved with a number of major accounts, including Chrysler, as an executive vice president. Thompson joins former Lexus marketing head Deborah Wahl Meyer, now Chrysler CMO, and Chrysler vice-chair Jim Press, former president of Toyota Motor North America, in the Chrysler ranks. Go to http://www.brandweek.com for the full story.
