The European Commission has unconditionally approved Google’s $3.1 billion acquisition of DoubleClick. This marks the biggest purchase in Google’s history. Microsoft was interested in the online advertising provider as well, but the Redmond company backed out of negotiations when offers climbed above $2 billion.
The EU’s approval came despite objections from rivals (including Microsoft), because the companies did not operate in the same online advertising markets: Google’s focus is on contextual advertising while DoubleClick sells banner ads and provides so-called “ad serving”. However, Google has already been by far the most powerful company in online advertising, so I’m sure this acquisition will put them further ahead of runner-ups Microsoft and Yahoo. Especially with DoubleClick’s ad serving technology that allows its clients to easily target specific websites and customers. Continue reading ‘EU approves Google’s DoubleClick acquisition’
As reported by Andrew of Domain Name Wire, Google AdWords has added a new option that lets advertisers opt out of domain parking sites:
To opt out of domain parking pages, advertisers use the “Site and Category Exclusion” tool in their account (see picture below). In addition to being able to opt out of parked pages, customers can opt out of error pages, forums, social networking sites, image sharing sites, and video sharing sites. Forums and social networking sites are known to have low click through rates, and conversions can also be low.
Google states, however, that ads on domain parking pages have been performing just as well as ads on other websites. I would even argue that traffic originating from generic domains’ parking pages, which is mostly direct navigation traffic, is highly targeted and converts better than ads on other sites in many cases. Still, most advertisers believe parking sites to be of no value, so I expect many of them to opt out of parking pages. This will probably be followed by a further fall in parking revenues for domain name owners and it is yet another reason why developing your best domains would make sense. As I said in earlier posts, I’m going to get my feet wet and finally develop one or two of my domains this year, too. My earnings from domain parking have really gone down during the past year and there is nothing in sight that would indicate a trend reversal.
The news of AOL having acquired social network Bebo came to me as a surprise given the recent talks about AOL itself being for sale (or at least open for a merger). The Time Warner company bought Bebo for a reported $850 million in cash. I guess AOL is still desperately trying to change its image in order to profit from the web 2.0 hype. Bebo has 40 million members, which makes it the third biggest social network after MySpace and Facebook. However, acquiring other companies won’t get AOL to the top. It really needs to find a strong partner such as Yahoo if it wants to seriously compete with the other big web companies, in my opinion.
Continue reading ‘AOL buys Bebo for $850 million’
Jeffrey L. Bewkes, chief executive of AOL’s parent company Time Warner, said Time Warner was open for a deal on AOL. He also acknowledged weakness in the Internet company’s business. AOL has indeed lost much of its sex appeal of glorier days, but it is still a powerful web company. First, it has a well-established brand name. Second, AOL made $5.2 billion in 2007 (down 33% from 2006). It also has more than 9 million paying US clients and AOL’s website receives more than 100 million visitors a month.
A major problem of AOL might be the change in the way people browse the web. In the past, people used to go to portals such as Yahoo! or AOL, but today they just go to a search engine to quickly find what they’re looking for. AOL has not yet been able to establish itself as a search engine, so it is understandable that the company finds it extremely difficult to compete with Google, Yahoo and even Microsoft. It hasn’t even got a chance to compete in the online advertising market.
Via the NY Times:
AOL will not meet its revenue goal for the first quarter this year, according to several of its senior executives, who also say it is unlikely to achieve full-year objectives. Advertisers say the company has fallen into a pattern of calling clients at the end of each quarter to offer last-minute price cuts on additional ads.
This being said, AOL has to go through a lot of changes. It does have advantages though and a new partner company might find a solution to get AOL back on track. But who will be it and for how much?
Clek Media Inc. (”Clek”) today announced that it has brokered the world-record sale of the domain FUND.COM for US$9,999,950 in an all-cash transaction. Clek, a media consulting firm, represented the seller of the domain, assisting in both the negotiation and closing of the transaction. The buyer is Fund.com Inc. (OTCBB: FNDM), a New York firm previously named Meade Technologies Inc. To date the buyer has revealed their plans for the domain mostly in filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Clek believes that the nearly $10 million purchase price for FUND.COM represents the highest price ever paid for an Internet domain. Continue reading ‘Fund.com sold for $10 million’
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