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April 4, 2008

April 4, 2008

Microsoft Gives Deadline to Yahoo Board

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has given Yahoo's board three weeks to approve Microsoft's $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo. If the board doesn't sign off on the bid, Ballmer said Microsoft will take its case to Yahoo's shareholders.

"The substantial premium reflected in our initial proposal anticipated a friendly transaction with you," Ballmer wrote to Yahoo's board members. "If we are forced to take an offer directly to your shareholders, that action will have an undesirable impact on the value of your company from our perspective which will be reflected in the terms of our proposal."

Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang and chairman Roy Bostock, in a statement today, reiterated that Microsoft's bid undervalues Yahoo. They insisted they aren't opposed to Microsoft taking over Yahoo -- they just want the bid to reflect Yahoo's value.

Since Microsoft made the bid two months ago, Ballmer said the public equity markets and overall economic conditions have weakened. "At the same time, public indicators suggest that Yahoo!’s search and page view shares have declined. Finally, you have adopted new plans at the company that have made any change of control more costly," he wrote.

In response, Yahoo's executives replied that the company has continued to launch new products and to take actions "that leverage our scale, technology, people and platforms as we execute on the strategy we publicly articulated."

The Yang-Bostock letter takes a personal tone. "We regret to say that your letter mischaracterizes the nature of our discussions with you," they wrote. "Moreover, Steve, you personally attended two of these meetings and could have advanced discussions in any way you saw fit."

Plus, Yang and Bostock point out that Microsoft's stock price has declined since its bid, meaning that the value of Microsoft's proposal is lower than it was two months ago.

On Friday, Bloomberg.com reported that Microsoft may cut its $44.6 billion bid for the company, suggesting the economic slowdown could hurt Yahoo's business.

Earlier Friday, Reuters said Microsoft was "evaluating" its bid to purchase the company. Reuters, quoting unnamed sources, pointed out that Yahoo has lost key personnel since Microsoft made its Jan. 31 offer, plus other factors.

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 10:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Behavioral Ads on Meth: More Info on U.S. ISP Practices

The Washington Post has some new information on the scope of ISP behavior tracking in the U.S. According to its story this morning, ad vendor Front Porch claims it's already observing and targeting ads to 100,000 U.S. broadband subscribers through secretive partnerships with its ISP partners. NebuAd meanwhile said it has deals that cover 10 percent of U.S. customers.

The relatively new method for behavioral targeting works by sniffing data packets on virtually all of a consumer's online activities (and anonymizing those packets, the companies involved will be quick to tell you). Ads are then served to consumers through cut-rate remnant network inventory. ISPs and their vendors only buy impressions where the IP address of the user matches up to its subscriber database.

Two ISPs, Wide Open West and Embarq, have modified their terms of service to permit the activity, and WOW named NebuAd as a partner, according to the WaPo story.

Reaction of the U.S. public and press to such activities has been muted in the U.S. The U.K. is a different story. There newspapers and public interest groups have loudly protested the development. A dedicated protest site was created at badphorm.co.uk, and a Web page has been set up to petition the Prime Minister to scrutinize the practices.

Our earlier coverage:
-ISPs Collect User Data for Behavioral Ad Targeting
-Questions for Bob Dykes, NebuAd CEO

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 3:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

At AOL, No Place Like a Home

Like a home with an inviting welcome mat, AOL has attracted visitors and advertisers alike to its real estate portal.

With 3.1 million unique visitors in February, AOL Real Estate ranked No. 4 among real estate sites, according to comScore. Only Move.com (that includes Realtor.com), Yahoo Real Estate, and MNS Real Estate had more visitors. In December 2007, AOL wasn't even on comScore's list of top real estate sites.

Looks like AOL has lined up a diverse mix of advertisers, too Advertisements on the AOL property appeared today included Pfizer's Viagra, Avis vehicle rentals, Toro's Z series line of lawn mowers, AT&T, and Continental Airlines.

In building this site, AOL picked up on a popular feature first seen on Zillow, that displays home value estimates. Working with Cyberhomes, the AOL site shows home market values, based on address, a house's size, and other information.

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 2:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Super Targeted Facebook Ad: You're Aiming Too High, Get a McJob

Facebook has offered powerful ad targeting since last fall, but I had no idea its algorithms had gotten this advanced. As you can see from the above ad which appeared in my feed yesterday, the company has not only strip-mined my profile for demographic, psychographic and interest-based data, but also somehow read between the lines to discover my inadequacies at work. I am truly humbled by this insight, Facebook and McDonald's, and I thank you. Click to see landing page.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 2:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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