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August 24, 2008 - August 30, 2008

August 29, 2008

Microsoft Nabs European Shopping Search Player

Microsoft has entered a deal to acquire Greenfield Online, an attitudinal researcher and owner of European comparison shopping player Ciao GmbH, for $486 million. Microsoft's in it strictly for the shopping search platform, which it dubs "commercial search," and has already found an (undisclosed) buyer for the research/survey business.

"Integrating Ciao's capabilities into Live Search will provide a strong launchpad for our commercial search offer in Europe and enhance our e-commerce offering on MSN," said John Mangelaars, consumer and online VP for Microsoft's operations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Ciao boasts 26.5 million monthly uniques in seven countries, according to comScore numbers cited by Microsoft. It aggregates merchant and product reviews and enable purchases in a manner similar to U.S. sites like eBay-owned Shopping.com.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 12:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Yahoo Set to Run First Google Search Ads in October

Eric Schmidt tells the Seattle Times that Google and Yahoo still plan to move ahead with their search advertising deal in October, despite recent questions from the Senate about whether the arrangement will raise prices for advertisers.

"We are going to move forward," Schmidt said Thursday. "We are in the process of talking to the government. They've not indicated one way or the other how they're dealing with us."

When the companies paired up in June, they said they'd delay implementation for up to three and a half months to allow a U.S. Justice Department review, though such a postponement isn't required by law. In a July 15 hearing, a Senate Judiciary Committee expressed concerns the pact would remove an important check on Google's dominance of the search advertising market.

Schmidt's conclusion: "We always worry a little bit, but we think our arguments are pretty strong."

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 11:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

McCain Ads Continue Attack

Senator John McCain has been deemed "Ready to Lead" in his online ads, and now he's ready to call his Democratic rival SenatorBarack Obama...er...un-ready. According to The Media Trust Company, McCain's camp dropped two new display ads yesterday, just in time for Obama's much-anticipated Mile High acceptance speech last night.

He's also touting his experience in search ads. A search for "McCain" turns up this ad: "No On The Job Training Needed Help Elect John McCain."

Posted by Kate Kaye at 9:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 28, 2008

Yahoo's Mobile Division Loses Two Execs

Yahoo confirmed two executives who specialized in mobile left its Connected Life division.

Steve Boom, SVP of Connected Life, and Gary Roshak, according to news first reported by Tricia Duryee of mocoNews.

Boom has been with Yahoo for 10 years and is looking for other opportunities, according to a company spokesperson. "He has been a tremendous asset to the company. He helped build the mobile team to what it is today, and we're in a great position to continue to lead the market." Gary Roshak left Yahoo on August 1, and has already been replaced by David Katz, formerly VP of corporate strategy. He's now VP of advertisers and publishers.

Despite a string of exits and reports of a "brain drain" at Yahoo, which continued over the summer, it's probably not likely to be the case within the Connected Life team. "In the mobile space we're continuing to push forward, continuing to sell deals, to sign advertisers, moving forward with business as usual," said the Yahoo source.

Posted by Enid Burns at 5:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

British Privacy Advocates Get Creative

Since Phorm announced it had signed contracts with U.K. ISP's back in March, a number of websites have sprung up designed to chart and combat the behavioural targeting firm's "illegal" activities. Examples include badphorm.co.uk, inphormationdesk.org and dephormation.org.uk.

It was the handy work of nodpi.org (stands for No Deep Packet Inspection) that caught my eye today however, with the introduction of a gallery section to the site. Quite what the artwork there is intended to achieve is beyond me, but I can't help but think some people have a little too much time on their hands.

"Who's buggering around with my net connection?" how very British…

Posted by Jack Marshall at 11:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

August 27, 2008

Phorm Appoints Digital Agency TBG London for B2B Help

ISP-based behavioral targeting company Phorm has hired digital agency TBG London for a helping hand with its B2B marketing efforts.

Speaking with me earlier today, a Phorm spokesperson said, "There is huge interest in our technology and its possibilities. TBG is helping us develop several propositions that draw on these capabilities for their presentation to a number of our business partners."

The spokesperson said the relationship was intended purely to aid Phorm in "bringing ideas to life," adding that no ad campaign was currently in the pipeline.

In the U.K., Phorm has already signed deals with major ISP's including Talk Talk, BT and Virgin Media, though none have started using the technology yet. BT originally said in April they would conduct trials “in the near future,” but have continued to postpone them.

Posted by Jack Marshall at 12:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

August 26, 2008

Deal Rumors: Can WPP Sell Open AdStream and Keep 24/7 Real Media?

Shortly after Microsoft bought aQuantive it quarantined the ad company's agency unit, Avenue A/Razorfish, in its own division with its own CEO. There were two ways to interpret that move: A) Microsoft wanted to keep the unit -- and its substantial profits -- while diminishing the appearance of conflict of interest, or B) Microsoft wanted to sell it and was removing the barriers to such a sale.

A report from AdAge appears to lend credence to the latter theory. According to the story, Microsoft has been in talks with WPP about a possible transaction that would unload Avenue A/Razorfish onto the agency holding company. Rather than a direct sale, unnamed sources tell AdAge the companies are entertaining a swap -- AA/Razorfish for 24/7 Real Media's Open AdStream technology. Such an arrangement would conceal the fact that both companies overpaid for their holdings, the thinking goes.

The partnership might make some additional sense since the companies have a very cozy relationship (Sir Martin Sorrell has spoken at numerous Microsoft events.)

But the logic doesn't quite hold when you look at the deal's technology underpinnings. For one thing, 24/7 Real Media's ad management system is a good deal more limited than what Microsoft already possesses with its Atlas unit. And while it's true that Open Adstream is a publisher side technology and Atlas is historically an advertiser facing one, Atlas has since built out its publisher offerings. Why would it want a redundant system? For the access to publishers? Eh, maybe.

Furthermore, what would be left of 24/7 Real Media after the amputation of Open AdStream? The main strength of this company, which WPP bought just a year ago, is its technology. Dumping the flagship product would be an explicit acknowledgement that the purchase was a blunder. To get AA/Razorfish in exchange for it would be an epic lemons-to-lemonade coup, but I still don't get what's in it for Microsoft.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 9:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

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