Archive for the 'Internet' Category



Yahoo responds to Icahn

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Yahoo!

Yahoo’s board of directors responded to Carl Icahn, who has been going to replace Yahoo’s board in order to bring the company back to Microsoft for a possible merger. Roy Bostock, chairman of the Yahoo board, said in a letter to Icahn that Carl Icahn was wrong about the fact why Microsoft’s acquisition of Yahoo had failed and that he should therefore not be allowed to take over Yahoo’s board. He also said it was in the best interest of Yahoo’s shareholders to not allow Icahn and his nominees to take control of Yahoo, because Microsoft had abandoned the negotiations with Yahoo and there was no acquisition offer on the table anymore.

Continue reading ‘Yahoo responds to Icahn’

Demographics added to YouTube Insight

Yesterday Google added some new features to YouTube Insight, the free video analytics tool available to YouTube publishers. The most interesting feature is the demographics tool, which can display the view count broken down by age, gender and geographic location. This allows publishers to better analyze who is watching their videos, hence allowing them to create more compelling content to meet their viewers’ needs.

(via Google)

Blogging Trends

Just watched an interesting video post from ProBlogger on the future of blogging. ProBlogger’s Darren Rowse was asked what he thought would be emerging trends in blogging. He said that there were five important trends he had been observing, namely:

  • Multiple-author blogs
  • Multi-topic blogs
  • Blogs converging with other types of sites
  • Portal-like design
  • Indirect monetization

As you will see, the bigger domain industry blogs are already following some of these trends. For example, DomainNews.com and DomainNameNews.com are multi-author blogs, most domain blogs are converging with web 2.0 sites too, and a couple of bloggers are indirectly monetizing their blogs by offering their own services and expertise to readers.

Here’s the video:

Time Inc. relaunches Health.com

Only a few days after BPHG Media launched the project for its one-word generic domain Prices.com, another company is planning to bring its domain to the next level. Time Inc. is going to relaunch its Health.com portal on Monday. The site was not much more than a so-called brochure site before, which means that it was barely more than the online destination of a Time Inc. health magazine and it did not feature enough original online content or web 2.0 features to compete with other popular websites in the lucrative health sector.

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Internet Mergers & Acquisitions

These Internet mergers are widely reported by now, so I’ll quickly point you to reliable sources for the detailed coverage.

1) Ask.com buys Lexico, owner of Dictionary.com

IAC/Ask.com is buying Lexico Publishing Group, which is the owner of generic domains and online businesses Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com and Reference.com. This will get Ask a great pile of additional unique traffic and make it the ninth biggest destination on the web in terms of the number of visits.

Click here for a detailed article about this acquisition.

2) CBS going to buy CNET

CBS Corp. said it was going to acquire CNet Networks Inc. for about $1.8 billion or $11.50 per share, which represents a 45 percent premium to its closing price on Wednesday. With this timely acquisition CBS wants to expand its reach across the Internet. I have always wondered why CNet has not been acquired earlier, taking into account their top-notch domain portfolio. The company owns many valuable generic domain names such as News.com, MP3.com, TV.com and Search.com inter alia, as well as established websites and online businesses. The acquisition has still to be approved by CNet’s shareholders.

Click here for detailed coverage about this transaction.

Google reaches all-time high

Online competitive intelligence service Hitwise yesterday released the latest U.S. search statistics for April 2008. It announced that Google hit an all-time high, accounting for 67.90% of all U.S. searches. This marks a 0.65% increase over March this year and a 2.64% increase over April 2007.

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Microsoft withdraws offer for Yahoo

MicrosoftYahoo!

Only a few days after Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) was reportedly raising its bid for Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) to $33 per share the company now decided to withdraw the offer, according to news by Reuters. The reason being that Yahoo was looking for $37 per share.

“Despite our best efforts, including raising our bid by roughly $5 billion, Yahoo has not moved toward accepting our offer,” Ballmer said in a statement.

“After careful consideration, we believe the economics demanded by Yahoo do not make sense for us, and it is in the best interests of Microsoft stockholders, employees and other stakeholders to withdraw our proposal,” said Ballmer.

To me Yahoo’s decision looks like yet another bad move in the company’s history. Continue reading ‘Microsoft withdraws offer for Yahoo’

Marchex Extends Local Strategy to Mobile Channel

Marchex Extends Local Strategy to Mobile Channel - Company to Provide Call-Based Advertising Services to AdMob and Other Leading Mobile Advertising Providers

SEATTLE, WA - April 30, 2008 - Marchex, Inc. (NASDAQ: MCHX, MCHXP), a local online advertising company and leading publisher of local content, today announced that it has extended its local advertising strategy to the mobile market, entering into agreements to provide call-based advertising services to three leading mobile advertising providers: AdMob, Ringleader Digital and 4INFO.

Marchex’s VoiceStar subsidiary will deliver call tracking services to all three companies, enabling them to validate the effectiveness and return on investment of their mobile advertising networks and provide their advertisers with analytics to help them optimize their mobile advertising campaigns.

Marchex’s call tracking enables mobile advertising providers to: (i) track the calls generated by advertisements on their network, (ii) determine exactly which advertisements delivered the calls, (iii) track and report key information including the duration, time of day and geographic location of callers, and (iv) record the calls. Marchex makes this information available to the mobile advertising provider through its comprehensive reporting interface.

In addition, Marchex will provide pay-per-phone-call services to AdMob, which will enable them to bill advertisers for the phone calls they deliver, which maximizes the value of their advertising inventory.

“Marchex is focused on partnerships with leading aggregators of local advertisers across all channels: online, offline, and mobile,” said John Keister, Marchex President and COO. “We believe that the mobile advertising opportunity is significant and is poised to realize tremendous growth over the next five years. Our call tracking and pay-per-phone-call capabilities provide a significant advantage for Marchex in the mobile search advertising market.”

“We are excited to bring new tools and technologies that will provide our advertising customers with results-focused advertising solutions,” said Omar Hamoui, Founder and CEO AdMob. “By linking the browsing experience of the mobile web with the communications capabilities of mobile phones, AdMob continues to deliver a powerful new tool for advertisers. Marchex’s call-based advertising services and suite of analytic tools enable us to better monetize our inventory and enable our advertisers to maximize the return on investment for their mobile advertising campaigns.”

“It is intuitive for consumers to search for a merchant’s phone number on their mobile device and call the merchant directly with just one click,” said Ari Jacoby, President of Marchex’s VoiceStar division. “It is getting easier for consumers to access a number for pizza delivery, car repair or whatever they need on their mobile device. As this occurs, pay-per-phone-call advertising and call tracking will play increasingly important roles in this mobile advertising ecosystem.”

For more information on Marchex’s call-based advertising services, visit www.voicestar.com or www.marchex.com.

(via Marchex, Inc. Press)

Microsoft raising bid for Yahoo?

As the Wall Street Journal reports, Microsoft is now willing to raise its bid for Yahoo to as much as $33 per share, up from about $29. Apparently, Microsoft wants to avoid the proxy battle its CEO Steve Ballmer had threatened. The $33 bid would still be lower than what Yahoo is looking for (the search company’s executives want to get an offer in the high $30s), so this is far from a done deal. A raised bid would put further pressure on Yahoo, however, and make it more difficult for the company to walk away from the bid as its shareholders might be inclined to support the takeover.

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Facilitate innovation

Innovation is what drives businesses and, as a result of that, economies and lifestyle. Therefore, it is very important to create environments that facilitate innovation, be it within your business, in school or universities.

SSE VenturesStanford has recently launched an early stage venture fund called SSE Ventures (Stanford Student Enterprises). It is a student association with $13 million in assets and several hundred employees trying to help the university’s undergraduate and graduate students start innovative companies. Stanford is the place where Sun, Yahoo, Google and other technology companies found their start. Now, Stanford is about to get even more student projects and businesses off the ground. SSE Ventures will invest $50,000 to $100,000 per project, according to the fund’s website.

Although some argue that Stanford wants to fill its pockets (the university takes a share in the companies it funds), I strongly believe that programs such as SSE Ventures facilitate innovation. Continue reading ‘Facilitate innovation’