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July 1, 2008

AOL, Microsoft, WPP: Top Wheeler Dealers

Marketing executives working with digital media vendors might need a scorecard handy to track who owns who these days.

AOL, Microsoft, and WPP each acquired five marketing, advertising, or digital media companies during the first six months of 2008, according to a report on mergers and acquisitions released today by investment bankers Petsky Prunier.

According to Petsky Prunier's research, the companies making the most acquisitions -- and some of their purchases -- include:

AOL: Bebo, a social networking site; Goowy Media, a widget development platform, and Perfiliate Technologies, an affiliate network.

Microsoft: Farecast.com, an online travel search engine, and Rapt, advertisement management software.

WPP Group: Integrated Media Measurement, which has a media measurement system that links media exposure to consumer action, and Yankelovich, a consumer research company.

Aegis Group: AdWatch, a Russian Internet advertising agency, and Globlet, a Thailand search marketing agency.

Havas Advertising: Kadium, a San Francisco digital ad agency, and Shake, a promotion marketing agency based in Chatham, NJ.

A look at the marketing, advertising, and digital media sectors shows the most money was exchanged for digital media companies. There were 78 transactions involving digital media companies totaling $6.3 billion, the firm reported.

Of those deals involving digital media companies, more than one-half involved user-generated or social media businesses. Those deals included AOL's acquisition of Bebo and Goowy Media, and Buzznet's purchase of Idolator.

In all, the Wall Street firm identified 398 deals valued at $19.7 billion involved marketing, advertising, and digital media companies for the first half of this year. Compared to the same period in 2007, the number of deals was up this year by 21 percent but the total transaction dollar volume was down by 26 percent. It said the drop in the value of transactions was due to two factors: this year's soft economy and two large deals last year with Microsoft's acquisition of aQuantive and Google's purchase of DoubleClick for $3.1 billion. (The Google-DoubleClick deal closed earlier this year, but was included by Petsky Prunier in the 2007 tally.)

As expected, no mention of the deal that didn't happen: Microsoft-Yahoo.

Or who's next.

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 4:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 20, 2008

SEC's New Fraud Charges Against Ex-AOLers: It Could Happen Again

Former CFO Mike Kelly is among eight former AOL Time Warner executives ensnared by a new set of Securities and Exchange Commission charges. The suits allege Kelly, AOL unit CFO Joseph Ripp and others fraudulently inflated ad revenues during the 2000 to 2002 bust cycle -- to the tune of about $1 billion. Kelly, Ripp and two others are contesting the charges, while four execs including David Cobourn have decided to settle for a combined $8.1 million.

The lawsuits are part of the agency's five-year-old investigations into how the company cooked its ad revenue books. The ad inflation scheme worked like so, per WSJ: "AOL made so-called round-trip transactions to inflate revenue, by giving vendors money to buy online advertising they didn't want or need."

The new charges come at a fairly poignant moment, given display ad CPMs are in decline by some measures, and Web ad companies are feeling pressure to perform in ways they haven't in several years. Granted I'm no financial expert, but it's not a stretch to speculate online ad inflation could happen again -- and probably will, as the nose-diving ad industry creates more downward pressure on display CPMs.

What form might those obfuscations take? Many factors can affect an online media company's ad volume or revenues, making both appear larger than they are. Those include false ad contracts like the one described above, older ad contracts made during boom years and extending into bust ones, the reporting of donated or pro bono ad inventory, the reporting of theoretical ad inventory -- for instance the number of total impressions available through an ad network versus actual ads served (We at ClickZ hear this one all the time), and the opaque ways many Web companies' traffic acquisition costs are set up and reported.

As an aside to all of the above, it's interesting to note that Lynda Clarizio, current president of Platform A, was at the time of the alleged transgressions a member of the company's business affairs unit -- which was also home to three of those targeted by SEC lawsuits. However, as SVP of business affairs and development between 1999 and 2002, her role was to lead the company's merger & acquisition activities -- not to calculate and report ad revenue to investors.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 3:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 5, 2008

Is the Stage Set for an AOL Sale?

With the dust settling around Microsoft's abortive bid for Yahoo, one thing's quickly becoming clear: The self-destruction of this particular takeover attempt is not the end of Yahoo's odyssey but merely a mid-way point. Analyst and blogger speculation this morning has anticipated a variety of outcomes for Yahoo, including a deal with News Corp (though talks have reportedly "cooled"), an acquisition of ValueClick, and even a late third act consummation with Microsoft.

The next big Web company to sell may not be Yahoo, however. Last month we learned Yahoo was closing in on a deal to imbibe AOL. Presumably those talks are still underway, and word this morning is Microsoft has already entered the fray. Google may also be interested in AOL, which would give it the reach in display that has so far eluded it.

Microsoft seems the best bet to triumph in any competitive bidding process, given it's already flashed its money roll to investors and the business community. Plus it really does crave search market share. And while AOL's 5 percent wedge of the U.S. search pie is modest by comparison to Yahoo's 21 percent, Microsoft could nearly match Yahoo by buying both AOL and Ask. Sweetening the deal for Microsoft, buying those two entities would would end Google's ad distribution deals with them, cutting into its profits.

Additionally, any company to combine with AOL will command the display ad market. A combined AOL-Yahoo would be a true powerhouse, as the companies are #1 and #2 in display. A combined Google-AOL would create huge inroads into display for a company that's so far still just barely out of lip-service territory in the category.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 2:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 30, 2008

IAC Earnings: Rising Google Lifts All Search Partners

IAC's media and advertising revenues enjoyed a Q1 boost thanks to the company's renewed ad partnership with Google. Ask.com improved both its revenue per query and overall revenues during the period, "even excluding the benefits of the renewed contract." However it's clear from IAC's statement that the company's buddy up in Mountain View deserves much credit for its solid search performance, especially considering total queries were down. A reduced marketing budget also helped profits.

Meanwhile, there was predictable pain over in IAC's Lending Tree unit, which is set to be spun off along with other non-advertising businesses. The company noted it had lowered its marketing investment for lending products, which translates to reduced spending on online lead generation. Again, no surprise there.

IAC's not the only Google partner sitting pretty today. Another party to benefit greatly from its relationship with the borg is TW's AOL, which today reported strength in search advertising thanks in part to the relationship. Meanwhile display advertising revenue on its own sites shrank -- largely due to anticipated factors, it should be said.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 4:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 25, 2008

Platform A's Bold New Upskirt Logo

Madison Avenue types may be more susceptible than the average Joe to voyeuristic advertising, but is this really in good taste?

In any case, Platform A Prez Lynda Clarizio argues the graphic “effectively communicates our distinct competitive advantage of scale and reach. And its bold and simple design fits with our mission of providing advertisers and publishers with effective, impactful and easy-to-use solutions to their digital advertising needs.”

Also, a touch literal, no? I mean, it's a Platform. It's an A. It's a... Platform A! Clearly someone's been pouring over their old Rebus Puzzle books from grade school. Ah, the memories.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 1:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 9, 2008

Microsoft/Yahoo Maneuvers: Curiouser and Curiouser

There's seemingly no end to the improbable machinations swirling around Microsoft's unsolicited bid for Yahoo. A flurry of late breaking rumors and announcements today conjured up a series of outlandish scenarios, including the combination of Yahoo and AOL's Internet operations, a possible joint bid for Yahoo by Microsoft and News Corp, and the (confirmed) outsourcing of a portion of Yahoo's search ads to Google.

The very latest developments, reported by WSJ this evening, are that (1) Yahoo and Time Warner's AOL are busy "closing in on a deal" to combine their businesses, yet another desperate maneuver to escape Microsoft's embrace; and (2) Microsoft is in "serious talks" with News Corp. about a plan to combine forces in a bid for Yahoo. No additional details were mentioned about this previously undiscussed scenario.

According to the report, Time Warner would contribute AOL along with a cash investment in exchange for a 20 percent stake in the company. The deal would be contingent on the approval of Yahoo's shareholders.

The latest rumors come at the end of a frenetic day for Yahoo, which this morning announced the planned acquisition of analytics platform IndexTools and this afternoon reluctantly stated it would conduct a test of Google's search ads on its own results pages.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 10:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 8, 2008

ESPN Gets Video Reach through AOL Deal

Not only has ESPN.com reportedly ditched selling through online ad networks, the site needs more video inventory to satisfy advertisers. In a bid to expand reach for its advertisers, the sports site will distribute its video content through AOL Video and AOL Sports. Game highlights, along with shows like "SportsCenter Right Now" and "Pardon the Interruption" will now be seen via an ESPN video player on AOL, in addition to ESPN.com.

MediaWeek recently reported that ESPN.com will no longer sell inventory through ad networks. Like that news, the AOL distribution deal indicates the site has more demand for advertisers than it can fulfill. So, it needs eyeballs from AOL viewers. While publishers struggle with trying to sell inventory, particularly trying to boost revenue from non-premium inventory, ESPN.com appears to be an anomaly in its ability to sell so much of its media direct.

Still, the site may need to branch out its ability to target audiences it doesn't reach enough of on its own property.

At this point, ESPN.com wouldn't tell ClickZ News anything about advertisers or sponsors. It plans to test AOL usage patterns before forecasting ad inventory.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 4, 2008

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) | TrackBack

March 5, 2008

Could Time Warner Come to Yahoo's Rescue?

Yahoo, which rejected Microsoft's bid to acquire the firm, may be looking east for its future.

Quoting unnamed sources, WSJ.com reports today Yahoo is in talks with TIme Warner, based in New York City, over developing an alternative to Microsoft's unsolicited offer for Yahoo. Specifically, the report says, discussion is centered on folding Time Wartner's AOL into Yahoo and giving Time Warner a minority stake in the combined organization.

Yahoo rejected Microsoft's bid, complaining that it undervalued the Silicon Valley company.

Earlier speculation had focused on the possibility of News Corp. making an offer for Yahoo. WSJ.com, quoting unnamed sources, said these talks are continuing separately.

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 10:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 20, 2008

AOL, Domesticated

Hot from the oven. AOL unveils AOL Home. Content partners include Hearst Magazines Digital Media, Real Simple, CondeNast, and This Old House. The site tackles topics including decorating, entertaining, green tips on making homes more energy efficient and environmentally friendly, organization and cleaning tricks, DIY, and more. This is perfect timing for me I'm getting ready to move. Stay tuned for my housewarming registry.

Posted by Enid Burns at 11:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 15, 2007

AOL's Games.com Plays Catch-up for Advertisers

AOL relaunched Games.com in an effort to provide advertising integration "beyond banner ads." The new opportunities include in-game advertising integrations in online games, pre-roll ads, and in-game interstitials. Is this anything new, or just playing catch-up to casual and Web-based game sites already monetizing effectively through advertising? The site offers more than 400 online and downloadable games, and plans to add 20 new games by the end of 2007.

Posted by Enid Burns at 12:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 7, 2007

AOL Execs Adapting to Increased Performance Ad Demands

This post was written by Kate Kaye.

AOL clearly aims to be among the elite online ad players, and its now-official purchase of Quigo for $340 million might help it along. If anything, it should assist AOL in accommodating advertisers' increased interest in performance-based advertising. During AOL-parent Time Warner's earnings call this morning, the firm said it's been grappling with how best to maneuver in a world where ads once sold as CPM-based
"premium" inventory are becoming cost-per-click or cost-per-action buys sold through third-party networks.

Even AOL has been shifting once-premium inventory sold direct by AOL onto its Advertising.com network. According to the company, revenues from ads on partner sites, primarily Advertising.com network sites, were up 21 percent in the third quarter. The company reported paid search revenues on AOL owned-and operated sites rose 15 percent, while display ad revenues on AOL sites were up 6 percent.

"Display growth in advertising is not at the level we're targeting for the longer term," said an exec during today's call with investors. AOL has redesigned its homepage, along with other section pages in the hopes of better ad performance.

Overall, AOL reported an increase of 13 percent in online ad revenue over Q3 2006 to $61 million, not enough to relieve a massive 56 percent drop in subscription revenues.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 12:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 6, 2007

Oh Quigo

Rumors that Quigo will soon be acquired by AOL are yet unconfirmed. Yesterday an AOL spokesperson replied with the standard, "We don't comment on rumors or speculation." And calls to Quigo have not been returned.

Posted by Enid Burns at 4:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 31, 2007

Truveo Brings Video Search Around the World

AOL's video search engine Truveo gets a reported 40 million users per month, according to comScore data. AOL says a large percentage of its traffic comes from outside the U.S. and is launching localized sites in key markets including France, Germany, India, Japan, Korea, Spain, Taiwan, and the U.K.. AOL has plans to continue an international roll-out with video search portals Australia, Brazil, Italy, Mexico, The Netherlands, Russia, and Turkey. The plans to reach other countries with video content in their local languages and matching regional interests comes just days after Google and YouTube launched Chinese language sites in Taiwan and Hong Kong. The pair had recently set up targeted versions of sites in Brazil, France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, and The U.K., according to Search Engine Journal.

With the Truvio announcement, AOL also said it launched in India with content available in Hindi and Tamil languages. "India is a very important market for AOL, and these announcements show our commitment to serving online consumers here with a robust portal and industry-leading video search tools," said Ron Grant, president and COO of AOL, in a corporate statement. "These are important steps in our ongoing efforts to make AOL a truly global company."

The number of Internet users in urban India has grown by 28 percent in the past year, and 60 percent of the country's Internet population of 30 million prefer to read in local Indian languages, according to the Internet and Mobile Association of India.

Posted by Enid Burns at 4:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 15, 2007

AOL Set to Drop 20 Percent of Staff

AOL is set to lay off a whopping 2,000 staffers according to a letter sent to the company's employees by CEO Randy Falco.

As part of its realignment to focus on three core areas (its Platform A ad unit, publishing and Web access and e-mail business, AOL will begin reducing staff tomorrow, dropping about 2,000 of its 10,000 employees worldwide in the next couple months.

"We added hundreds of people this year through acquisitions," Falco reminded workers in the e-mail. Whether staff from new acquisitions Tacoda, ThirdScreen Media or AdTech will be among the pink-slipped remains to be seen.

"The last important piece in this transition is the realignment of our costs against these three businesses so we can operate as efficiently and effectively as possible," wrote Falco. "This is in many ways the most difficult step, but a necessary one….We will aid these individuals in their transition to new opportunities as much as possible, most importantly with what we believe are generous severance packages."

Posted by Kate Kaye at 4:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 6, 2007

AOL/Tacoda Buy Approved

Tacoda filed the Hart-Scott-Rodino docs required for the AOL acquisition August 1, according to CEO Curt Viebranz, and the acquisition just went through, says a company press release. So, now that the deal's sealed, Tacoda is a wholly owned subsidiary of AOL.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 5:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 2, 2007

Earnings Pain: Why AOL Ad Growth Just Hit a Wall

AOL's speeding motorcycle of ad revenue growth evidently left the freeway and entered a school zone in Q2, forcing it to slow from the 40 percent growth it accomplished last quarter to just 16 percent.

Time Warner CEO Dick Parsons blamed the disaster on the passing of anniversaries for major ad deals it struck last year and on user and advertiser disorientation over programming changes and core product enhancements. "These kinds of upgrades often lead, at the beginning, to a slowing in traffic and monetization," he said, trying to explain how site improvements could actually hurt the business. "Users routinely require a little time to become accustomed to the redesigned pages while advertisers naturally want to see how the new programming performs before reinvesting significantly."

Parsons then uttered the major bummer that the company is "stepping back from our expectation that AOL will grow its advertising at or above the domestic industry growth rate this year."

Other highlights:
-Revenue at Advertising.com grew 32 percent during the quarter, much faster than AOL proper.
-E-mail was up 27 percent for the quarter and now accounts for 43 percent of page views, while search stagnated with only 6 percent growth, chalked up to subscriber attrition.
-Traffic: TW claims AOL now has 21.4 million total users, of which 10.5 million are free users.
-Time Warner also talked about plans to integrate recently acquired ad technology products, on which it's spending an aggregate $0.5 billion. These include Adtech, Tacoda, LightningCast and Third Screen Media, and you can bet Tacoda will be integrated with Advertising.com.

So, expiring ad deals and harmful "enhancements" put a big drag on a company that by all accounts should've continued growing like gangbusters into Q3 -- the one-year anniversary of its launch as an open, ad-supported site. Meanwhile AOL is turning into an e-mail machine, with nearly half its inventory generated through that notoriously hard to monetize application.

Bad signs all around. The only real bright spot here is Advertising.com, which we hear is on track to bring in $1 billion in revenue this year.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 11:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 1, 2007

Tacoda Filing Hart-Scott-Rodino Docs Today

Tacoda is filing its required Hart-Scott-Rodino docs today, CEO Curt Viebranz just told ClickZ News. Those are the pesky papers necessary to cough up to the Federal Trade Commission when companies agree to mergers and acquisitions. In this case, of course, it's AOL that's acquiring the behavioral targeting tech firm.

So, I've been wanting to clarify what seemed like conflicting reports following the news of the buy earlier this month. After speaking with AOL and Tacoda about how Tacoda might be integrated with AOL, which owns giganto ad network Advertising.com, the answer seemed to be that AOL would be using the BT tech on its AOL.com site, but it wasn't yet clear what would happen when it comes to Advertising.com integration.

Another report seemed to note the opposite, stating Tacoda's longtime competitor in the BT sphere, Revenue Science, would continue enabling behavioral targeting on AOL.com.

Huh?

The fact is no matter what any of these folks say, AOL bought Tacoda for a reason, and surely it will squeeze out whatever it can get. So, it's doubtful Tacoda won't be used to power AOL.com's AND Advertising.com's behavioral targeting eventually.

Viebranz today told me, "We clearly think there are going to be opportunities to work with both AOL.com and the [Advertising.com] ad network."

As for Revenue Science, one can imagine a large publisher network or agency picking them up at some point, though evidently they've been shopping themselves around for awhile now. WPP bought 24/7 recently. Maybe they'd wanna tack on some behavioral? Or how 'bout Microsoft, which is on a me-too buying spree these days?

As for Google, they seem to be developing their own behavioral-like stuff, and Revenue Science's technology, from what I understand, is really designed more for individual publisher-side use (what Tacoda was before it went the network route). But, as Google tweaks its privacy policy to accommodate different types of ads and data use, who knows? And Yahoo? Well, they've had their own in-house behavioral targeting for years, so I wouldn't expect them to have a use for Rev Sci.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 11:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 17, 2007

AOL Tests Vista Gadget

Windows Vista has the ability for content owners and marketers to build desktop widgets to make their platforms more accessible. AOL just released its early version of the AOL Social Mail Gadget at dev.aol.com/mail. The widget gives users one-click, desktop access to e-mail, AIM, photos and video. The top five contacts float to the top so users can immediately message their friends and family.

The widget give AOL desktop visibility to all users. It won't immediately run advertising, but it's not out of the question. "As part of AOL's audience and monetization growth strategy, we are going to look at optimized monetization opportunities surrounding the gadget," said an AOL spokesperson.

Posted by Enid Burns at 4:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 2, 2007

AOL Ad Revenue Up 40 Percent in Q1

Time Warner saw increased revenues but declining profits during Q1 2007. One of the bright spots was AOL, where advertising grew by $157 million, a whopping 40 percent increase. Of course, overall revenues at the unit declined by more than three times that amount, $499 million, in the ongoing wake of the mercy killing of its access business. AOL's monthly unique user count for the quarter was 111 million, according to comScore Media Metrix.

In Time Warner's Time Inc. publishing unit, online ad revenues grew to $17 million, led by People.com, CNNMoney.com and SI.com, the company said.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 11:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 16, 2007

AOL's Move into Euro Affiliate Marketing

AOL has put in a huge, $900 million bid on Swedish affiliate player TradeDoubler. That's equal to Google's search and ads agreement with MySpace, to put it in perspective. It also calls to mind another big cross-border affiliate acquisition, that of Linkshare by Japanese portal Rakuten over a year ago for $425 million.

I know next to nothing about TradeDoubler, but am presuming AOL's done a thorough investigation into its affiliates' practices and legislative probabilities in Sweden and the EU. The impact of recent U.S. legislation on gambling affiliates is still a fresh memory.

AOL execs are saying they believe the company would be complementary with AOL's Advertising.com ad network unit in the U.S. Perhaps that means they intend to offer advertisers the option to manage their network buys and affiliate programs in one place. That would require a leap on the part of many advertisers who run their affiliate programs out of their sales departments, whereas network buys are solidly a marketing function.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 11:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

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