WebProNews - Deals

Report Indicates Google Bought Gizmo5

Doug Caverly — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:19:56 +0000

Not long ago, Eric Schmidt estimated that Google would start making monthly acquisitions. Today, it's almost looking like the dial got bumped up to hourly, since following this morning's confirmed acquisition of AdMob, a report has indicated that Google's bought Gizmo5, too.

Gizmo5 is a VoIP firm. Two recent company blog posts are titled "Introducing GizmoVoice - A Free Phone Line Using Google & Gizmo5" and "Add Gizmo5 Calling Directly To Gmail!" so it's clear that there are some strong links between it and Google.

Two less obvious details also make them a good match, since the Gizmo5 homepage is dotted with the word "free" (as we all know, Google rarely charges for things) and the Gizmo5 site is available in nine languages (Google loves to serve lots of countries).

Anyway, Michael Arrington, who was the first to write about the rumored acquisition, predicted that Gizmo5 will fill a vital role. "Gizmo5 will be the glue that puts Google Voice and Google Talk together into a single product," he stated. "And that product looks a lot like a Skype competitor."

Arrington put Gizmo5's price at $30 million (in cash). Gizmo5's site has since become quite slow, but we'll keep an eye out for official confirmation.

Related Articles:

> Google Buys Mobile Ad Firm For $750 Million In Stock

> eBay And Skype Settle Litigation

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Google Buys Mobile Ad Firm For $750 Million In Stock

Mike Sachoff — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:08:09 +0000

Google said today it has signed an agreement to acquire mobile display advertising firm AdMob for $750 million in stock.

Google says its acquisition will improve its existing expertise and technology in mobile advertising, while also giving advertisers and publishers more choice in the growing new area.

Highlights of Google's purchase of AdMob include:

The deal will bring new innovation and competition to mobile advertising, and will lead to more effective tools for creating, serving, and analyzing emerging mobile ads formats.
This deal will benefit developers, publishers, and advertisers by improving the performance of mobile advertising, and will provide users with more free or low-cost mobile apps.
The mobile advertising space will remain highly competitive, with more than a dozen mobile ad networks. The deal is similar to mobile advertising acquisitions that AOL, Microsoft, and Yahoo have made in the past two years

"Mobile advertising has enormous potential as a marketing medium and while this industry is still in the early stages of development, AdMob has already made exceptional progress in a very short time," said Susan Wojcicki, Vice President of Product Management at Google.

"AdMob is the quintessential Silicon Valley startup -- generating impressive year on year revenue growth -- and we're excited to welcome this talented team to Google."

Related Articles:

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EA Acquires Playfish For (Maybe) $400 Million

Doug Caverly — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:57:18 +0000

Social network games - and by extension, social networks themselves - received a strong endorsement this morning as a major acquisition was announced. Electronic Arts has bought Playfish, a maker of said games, for at least $300 million.

Barry Cottle, Senior Vice President and General Manager of EA Interactive, explained in a statement, "Social gaming, with its emphasis on friends and community, is seeing tremendous growth and this is the right time to invest to strengthen our participation in this space."

Indeed, Playfish should make a good partner for EA. The company describes itself as a leader in the social gaming industry, and has received backing from Accel Partners (which also invested in Facebook) and Index Ventures (which put its weight behind Last.fm and Skype).

Moreover, Playfish claims that over 150 million of its games have been installed. (Playfish's top games are Country Story, Pet Society, Restaurant City, and Who Has The Biggest Brain? in case you're curious.)

And that large number brings us back to the matter of Playfish's price. EA's paying $275 million in cash and $25 million in "equity retention arrangements" up front. Then, as much as $100 million more will be delivered if unspecified performance milestones are met between now and the end of 2011.

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Microsoft, Yahoo May Extend Partnership Outside The U.S.

Doug Caverly — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:40:26 +0000

Microsoft's CEO isn't getting ahead of himself; for the time being, Steve Ballmer's taking a "first things first" approach. However, he indicated today that if the proposed U.S.-only Microsoft-Yahoo search partnership goes through, an international agreement may follow.

According to Mayumi Negishi, Ballmer said at a news conference in Tokyo, "It's possible that we will extend that partnership (with Yahoo) outside the U.S. We will have to wait and see if we can get approval and consummate that partnership inside the U.S. first."

An international arrangement would make a great deal of sense for Microsoft and Yahoo. After all, Google's extremely popular in many places around the world, so any measures the two companies take to fight it in America would be appropriate elsewhere.

Also, even if Microsoft and Yahoo can't make any inroads on Google's market share, being more efficient in lots of countries is better than being more efficient in one if they can save money by working together.

So we'll see what happens in early 2010, assuming Microsoft and Yahoo are able to implement their U.S. deal as planned at that point. And we'll try to keep an eye on what the two companies have to say to international regulators in the meantime.

Related Articles:

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Facebook/Twitter Use May Now Mean More for Google/Bing Rankings

Chris Crum — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:17:52 +0000

Disclaimer: This article was originally written before Google made its announcement, and has been updated to reflect that.

Google and Microsoft have both inked deals with Twitter and Microsoft has also inked one with Facebook to integrate Twitter and Facebook updates into Bing search results. Google will be adding tweets to search results.

Google's Marissa Mayer says, " We believe that our search results and user experience will greatly benefit from the inclusion of this up-to-the-minute data, and we look forward to having a product that showcases how tweets can make search better in the coming months. That way, the next time you search for something that can be aided by a real-time observation, say, snow conditions at your favorite ski resort, you'll find tweets from other users who are there and sharing the latest and greatest information."

Google's Announcement:

There is a good chance that Google will be making a similar deal with Facebook, but even if they don't, their deal with Twitter and Bing's deals with both make it all the more important for marketers to be found in real-time searches and Facebook/Twitter in general.

Do you spend anytime trying to be found in real-time searches? Discuss here.

A while back WebProNews compiled a list of five tips for getting found in real-time searches, which basically boils down to staying in the conversation for relevant topics that people are searching for. The tips were:

1. Use keywords
2. Talk about timely events
3. Have a lot of followers
4. Promote conversation
5. Include calls to engagement

I elaborated on each of these in the previous article. Social media is viral by nature, and real-time search is nothing more than putting things in chronological order. You have to keep people talking to stay relevant "right now."

That said, we don't know all the details about how Google and Bing will be integrating its Twitter and Facebook results into the rest of their results yet. Bing has made available a beta tool for people to mess around with for searching tweets with the search engine. "You can now search for what people are saying all over the web about breaking news topics, your favorite celebrity, hometown sports team, and anything else you use Twitter to stay on top of today," says Paul Yiu of Bing's Social Search team.

A spokesperson for Microsoft tells WebProNews, more specifically, the new Twitter developments in Bing include:

A real-time index of the Tweets that match your search queries in results. This feature makes it easier to follow what’s going on by reducing the amount of duplicates, spam, and adult content.

Giving you the option to rank tweets either by most recent or by “best match,” where we consider a Tweeter’s popularity, interestingness of the tweet, and other indicators of quality and trustworthiness.

Providing the top links shared on Twitter around your specific search query by showcasing a few of the most relevant tweets. Additionally, Bing automatically expands those small URLs (like bit.ly) to enable you to understand what people are tweeting about. Instead of showing standard search result captions, we select 2 top tweets to give users a glimpse of the sentiment around the shared link.

Bing already displays some Tweets for certain people results at the very top of the regular web search results page. That's a good place to appear. Here is a little info about how they rank tweets in their Twitter search.

Google announced a new Google labs project that injects social media into its own search results. This was also announced at the Web 2.0 Summit. Ben Parr with Mashable has the details from Mayer:

    - The bottom of search results will soon have social networking information from your friends, like their Flickr (Flickr) photos or their status updates. It’s a blended search integration, similar to seeing news or image results.

    - These are pulled from social networks connected to your Google Profile. The more that are connected, the more social information that will appear in search results.

    - They have also improved searching for images using social networks. Images become more relevant using social networking data.

    - It will launch in Google Labs in the next few weeks.

The deals with Microsoft and Google make social media marketing all the more important to marketing in general, and specifically search engine marketing. Where social media has generally fit into the SEO equation thus far, has been the promotion of content, which inspires links and conversation, which can in turn help search engine rankings.

Now, if status updates and tweets become directly integrated into search results in Universal Search-type fashion, it will be not only be about promotion and outside links, it will be about direct exposure right in the results, not unlike the importance of online video right now (as you're probably aware, videos are often displayed prominently on the first page of Google results).

Now, forgetting about Google for a moment, pretend that the deals with Microsoft are the only ones that happened. You may also recall that Microsoft has a certain deal in the works with Yahoo. This (if everything goes according to plan) will see Bing results taking over Yahoo's own. Yahoo may still be controlling the front-end of its search, but Bing will be controlling the back-end. Ranking for Bing will mean ranking for Yahoo.

So with Yahoo, Twitter, and Facebook deals all in place for Bing, getting found in real-time searches may not only mean getting found in Twitter searches, Facebook searches, and such. It may also mean getting found in Bing searches and in Yahoo searches. That's pretty much the meat of the non-Google U.S. search market.

Now let's bring Google back into the equation. It has a deal with Twitter and may very well have one with Facebook before long. Kara Swisher who broke the news about Microsoft's deals says Google's been talking with both social networks. Still think real-time search and social media are not worth your time?

Do you think deals with Bing and Google will have a big impact on traffic from Twitter and Facebook? Share your thoughts.

Skype Founders Reportedly Close to Settlement with eBay

Chris Crum — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:12:45 +0000

Update 3: Skype and eBay may be close to resolving their issues. Om Malik reports:

The ongoing legal scuffle between Skype, a division of eBay, and its founders, Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom, may soon see a resolution, according to someone familiar with the situation. The parties are in discussions to resolve the various issues. The talks are described to be at a sensitive stage and can break down without any conclusion.

Update 2: At the Shop.org Summit this week, eBay John Donahoe said that despite lawsuits, the $1.9 Billion deal will still close.

Update: The Skype founders filed another lawsuit today, complicating matters even more. Reuters reports:

The founders of Skype on Friday filed a new lawsuit against Index Ventures and one of its partners, Michelangelo Volpi, accusing him of misappropriating trade secrets to help broker the sale of the Internet phone service owned by eBay Inc.

Original Article: eBay is being sued by the founders of Skype for no less than $75 million per day. Skype founders Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom now own a company called Joltid. They have asked for an injunction to stop Skype from using a piece of software it owns in a filing in a US district court in San Francisco, according to Bloomberg.

Joltid alleges that eBay has been showing the source code for the software to third-party developers without their permission. Joltid claims that peer-to-peer technology of the software is being used in Skype, although they demanded to retain the rights to it back when eBay purchased Skype in 2005. Now, they want $75 million for every day the source code continues to be shown.

eBay says the Skype founders' claims are "without merit," but according to Bloomberg, eBay says it may shut down Skype if the dispute is not resolved, although they claim to be developing an "alternative technology."

The companies that are planning to buy Skype have also been named in the lawsuit.

eBay recently signed a deal to sell most of Skype, while retaining a 35% stake. The deal valued Skype at $2.75 billion. According to the deal, an investor group led by Silver Lake, which also includes Index Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz and the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) Investment Board would control about a 65% stake. eBay is supposed to receive approximately $1.9 billion in cash upon the completion of the sale.

You have to wonder if the acquisition will go through at all after this mess. This was probably a little more than these investors bargained for.

Related Articles:

> The eBay-Skype Deal Hits Roadblock

> eBay Finds Buyer For Skype

> eBay Sells Skype, Which is Worth $2.75 Billion

Amazon Completes Acquisition of Zappos

Chris Crum — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:42:35 +0000

Update: Amazon announced the completion of its acquisition of Zappos.com today. The Zappos management team will remain intact, and Zappos will operate independently with its headquarters in Las Vegas.

Original Article: Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh sent an email to Zappos employees today informing them that Amazon is becoming the only shareholder of Zappos stock. The following video from Jeff Bezos was also posted on the Zappos Blog:

Here is a sample of what Hsieh said in the email:

Over the next few days, you will probably read headlines that say "Amazon acquires Zappos" or "Zappos sells to Amazon". While those headlines are technically correct, they don't really properly convey the spirit of the transaction. (I personally would prefer the headline “Zappos and Amazon sitting in a tree…”)

We plan to continue to run Zappos the way we have always run Zappos -- continuing to do what we believe is best for our brand, our culture, and our business. From a practical point of view, it will be as if we are switching out our current shareholders and board of directors for a new one, even though the technical legal structure may be different.

We think that now is the right time to join forces with Amazon because there is a huge opportunity to leverage each other's strengths and move even faster towards our long term vision. For Zappos, our vision remains the same: delivering happiness to customers, employees, and vendors. We just want to get there faster.

Zappos employees will still have their jobs, and the company will continue to run the same way. In fact, Zappos says they will need to hire more people to continue growing. The company's leaders will remain in place as well.

For all of the available details, you can read the entire lengthy email here, as well as a Q&A. The transaction is not one of cash. Zappos shareholders and option holders will be issued 10 million Amazon shares. More details of the deal will be made public after an SEC filing.

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Microsoft Tipped As Most Likely Ask.com Buyer

Doug Caverly — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 21:27:38 +0000

Since IAC/InterActiveCorp CEO Barry Diller indicated on Tuesday that he's willing to sell Ask.com, the question on many people's minds has been, "Who might buy it?" And at this point, the most likely answer seems to be "Microsoft."

Let's run down the possibilities within the search industry. There would be little point in Google buying Ask. After all, Google's market share dwarfs the 2 to 3 percent Ask currently controls, and the two companies already have an advertising deal in place.

Yahoo might get more out of buying Ask, since doing so would augment its search share by a noticeable amount and toss a monkey wrench at Google, but with the Microsoft search partnership sort of looming overhead, such a move would also seem a little pointless.

Finally, AOL, for its part, is about to lose access to Time Warner's checkbook.

Which leaves Microsoft, a favorite of analysts to whom Yinka Adegoke spoke. Microsoft's already demonstrated a willingness to buy search companies, and since the Yahoo acquisition failed, may have some money intended expressly for that purpose sitting around.

Then, you have to consider that a market share of 2 or 3 percent must look pretty respectable to a company that itself only has a share of 10 or 11 percent.

This speculation doesn't amount to an offer on Steve Ballmer's part, of course. It just looks like his company might be able to find a use for Ask if the price is right.

Related Articles:

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Microsoft, Yahoo Miss Agreement Deadline

Doug Caverly — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:37:59 +0000

The proposed Microsoft-Yahoo deal seems to have hit a small and oddly unspecified bump. The companies missed an October 27th deadline by which they hoped to have some details ironed out.

Yahoo admitted yesterday in an SEC filing, "The Letter Agreement specified that the parties would execute Definitive Agreements by October 27, 2009, but given the complex nature of the transaction, there remain some details to be finalized. The parties are working diligently on finalizing the agreements, have made good progress to date, and have agreed to execute the agreements as expeditiously as possible."

The Microsoft-Yahoo partnership hasn't been derailed, then, and considering all the time and energy everyone's spent following these dealings, that's a bit of a relief. There's just the question of why this delay has occurred.

Microsoft and Yahoo might be holding some quiet discussions with regulators in order to make sure they get things right on the first try. Or maybe, considering that this is a ten-year deal, both sides' lawyers have just gotten a little overwhelmed with paperwork.

Anything more serious would probably merit a mention in the SEC filing.

So hang in there and we'll see what happens. Yahoo did not establish a new target date, by the way.

Related Articles:

> Carl Icahn Quits Yahoo's Board Of Directors

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Yahoo May Pursue Real-Time Search With OneRiot

Doug Caverly — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 21:27:40 +0000

Bing and Google may have gotten a head start, but Yahoo isn't ignoring the whole real-time search arena, according to a new report. In fact (or at least in rumor, if you will), Yahoo may be working on a product with OneRiot right now.

Yes, Michael Arrington reported that Yahoo isn't pursuing anything with either Facebook or Twitter. OneRiot, a real-time search engine that's already up and running, is supposed to be its new pal, instead. And Arrington wrote, "If our source is correct . . . the product will launch very soon."

So here's a little more info about OneRiot. On the corporate side of things: it launched about a year ago, and is headquartered in Boulder, Colorado. It's received funding from Spark Capital, which has put money into Twitter, too.

As for the tech, the OneRiot search engine is in beta, yet it deals with both text and video, and more specifically, "crawls the links people share on Twitter, Digg and other social sharing services," according to an "About Us" page.

It should be interesting to see what (if anything) Yahoo and OneRiot come up with. Although playing catch-up isn't easy, they have the opportunity to learn from others' mistakes and refine their best ideas.

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AT&T Strikes Ad Deal With Vevo

Mike Sachoff — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:53:45 +0000

Online music video site Vevo, launching in December, said today it has signed AT&T as its first advertiser.

Partners in Vevo include Universal Music Group, Sony Entertainment and investor Abu Dhabi Media Company. The new music video site will be powered by YouTube.

The announcement did not include details about ad revenue sharing, but AT&T said it would support Vevo's services across multiple connected platforms.

"When you can reach people while they're pursuing one of their passions and help them learn, do or share something important to them, you can more strongly demonstrate how your brand is valuable and relevant to their lives," said Chris Schembri, vice president of media services for AT&T.

Vevo

"Music and entertainment are two of the broadest-reaching and influential 'passion points' for consumers, and aligning our brand with a new property like Vevo gives us a chance to reach them in fresh, meaningful ways."

At launch the content will be made available on YouTube, on Vevo, and through a special branded embedded player. The service will also act as a syndication platform for additional sites, expanding the reach of the Vevo brand online.

"AT&T is known for their innovative marketing and advertising programs, so their decision to join Vevo at such an early stage reflects not only their belief in our exceptionally compelling platform and content, but in our ability to deliver against AT&T's unique brand vision," said Rio Caraeff, president and chief executive officer of Vevo.

Related Articles:

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MySpace, MSN Now Said To Be In Talks

Doug Caverly — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:42:40 +0000

Yesterday, the surprising news that Facebook and MySpace are negotiating a content-sharing partnership broke, yet that's not all the latter social network has on its plate. A fresh report indicates MySpace is also in talks with MSN over some sort of music deal.

MSN is interested in "using the social networking site's music service, MySpace Music, to help power music offerings on the giant portal," according to Kara Swisher. She then continued, "While sources at both companies cautioned the talks were still early, Microsoft (MSFT) - which has its own music site that it programs with original and partnered content - execs are interested in goosing it."

An arrangement that would give MSN users access to more music would be of obvious benefit to Microsoft. The exposure - and/or cash - that MySpace would receive from such a deal would no doubt help it, too.

Plus, it's not like either company has defined itself as some sort of lone wolf. Microsoft's reached out to Yahoo and Twitter in recent months, and MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta was quoted yesterday as saying, "Partnerships are going to be a big part of our strategy moving forward as a lot of value can be derived from them."

So stay tuned and see what happens. It may be that little "powered by MySpace" graphics will start popping up in quite a lot of places.

Related Articles:

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Facebook, MySpace May Share Content

Doug Caverly — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 21:27:17 +0000

Never mind swine flu - it may in fact be time to start watching out for flying oinkers. Social networking archrivals Facebook and MySpace are discussing the idea of sharing content, according to people at the highest levels of both organizations.

On Facebook's side of things, Sheryl Sandberg, the company's COO, told Emma Barnett, "Facebook is focussing on building the best technology which helps people share content, while at MySpace they are focussing on more a content-led strategy. We would like to have their content, as we already do with many other sites, shared across our network because it is good for our users."

Then, sure enough, Owen Van Natta, the CEO of MySpace, also contributed a quote. "We are in talks with Facebook, and other sites, about how we could partner with them," he said. "Partnerships are going to be a big part of our strategy moving forward as a lot of value can be derived from them."

So, although nothing's been agreed upon, this isn't scuttlebutt being circulated by the mail guy and an intern.

In fact, this is a fairly major development that could be taken as weakness on either side's part - either Facebook worrying that people will jump ship to MySpace, or MySpace thinking that this is its best chance to get eyeballs - but a properly implemented partnership should benefit everyone.

It'll be interesting to see if Facebook and MySpace can set aside their competition for users long enough to pull it off.

Related Articles:

> Twitter Makes Share Buttons More Useful

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Yahoo Partners With GroupM On Branded Content Deal

Mike Sachoff — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:16:23 +0000

Yahoo has partnered with WPP's GroupM Entertainment to help marketers incorporate their brands into original online programming.

The programs will appear across Yahoo's network of media properties, including news, sports, finance and entertainment.

"Marketers need big, ground-breaking ideas that engage and delight consumers, and this partnership with Yahoo! will enable them to create unique high value relationships," said GroupM Entertainment Worldwide CEO Peter Tortorici, who will administer the partnership for GroupM.

Joanne Bradford,
Yahoo! Senior VP,
N. American Revenue
and Market Development

GroupM and Yahoo will work together with advertisers to develop concepts that map media content with an advertiser's messaging, and produce the content for each program. Yahoo will promote the branded programs to targeted audiences across its network.

"Yahoo! has a keen understanding of what makes our audience click, and this partnership will help advertisers develop deeper connections with our users," said Joanne Bradford, Yahoo!'s senior vice president, North American revenue and market development.

"Furthermore, Yahoo! can continue to build on its successful portfolio of the Internet's most-watched original programming by tapping into GroupM's incredible creative development talent."

Yahoo points to its TechTicker program with Scottrade as the advertiser, as an example of one of its successful campaigns, calling it the most viewed business and investing program online averaging more than 350,000 streams per day.

GroupM unit Mindshare Entertainment, created "In the Motherhood," an original online series for its clients Sprint and Unilever's Suave that was later picked up by ABC Television and developed into the first prime time comedy to be spun off from a Web series.

YouTube Strikes Deal With UK Broadcaster

Doug Caverly — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 13:43:26 +0000

New content - and quite a lot of it - will soon become available on YouTube. The video-sharing site's struck a revenue-sharing deal with Channel 4 that'll give it access to full-length, recently broadcast shows along with about 3,000 hours of archive material.

This development represents a big breakthrough in several ways. First, there's the obvious benefit to YouTube users, since all of the content will be free as usual. Also, a press release announced, "The strategic partnership marks the first time that a broadcaster anywhere in the world has made a comprehensive catch-up schedule available on YouTube . . ."

And considering that YouTube and Channel 4 have been in negotiations for around six months - and that their new deal will be effective for at least three years - they're demonstrating a significant amount of trust in the arrangement.

There are a couple of details that'll disappoint some people, however. The biggest one is perhaps that all of the content will only be available to people in the UK. Then - although this might solve the previous problem - YouTube execs probably aren't thrilled that the deal is nonexclusive, meaning Channel 4 can negotiate with Hulu or any other company it likes.

Anyway, Patrick Walker, YouTube's director of partnerships, said in a statement, "We know that the YouTube community is enthusiastic about full-length programming on the site, and we've been working hard to create the right environment for more broadcasters to make their content . . . . This partnership demonstrates our commitment to bringing an even greater range of content to YouTube and we look forward to other similar agreements to come."

Twitter Partners With Huge Indian Telecom

Doug Caverly — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 20:50:31 +0000

Today's a big day for Twitter. Twitter - which still lists fewer than 80 people on its payroll - has announced a partnership with Bharti Airtel, India's largest integrated telecom company.

This development probably won't lead to every Bharti Airtel customer becoming a Twitter addict, but it will eliminate big some obstacles. First of all, the customers needn't worry about having hardwired Internet connections - the partnership is all about texting. Second, a lot of fees have been waived.

Biz Stone explained on the Twitter Blog, "Our partnership with Bharti Airtel, the largest mobile operator in India, means a huge population of people can now send tweets at standard rates and receive tweets for free. Bharti Airtel is offering people in every city, every village, every remote taluk and even the smallest panchayat the opportunity to connect to Twitter and enjoy the open exchange of information with no added fees."

And that would be quite enough for one day; explosive growth may well occur as a result. But it sounds like Stone has other agreements in the works, too, since he also wrote, "[T]here are more than four billion people with mobile phones and Twitter can work on all of them because even the simplest of these devices feature SMS. . . . As long as you keep asking for Twitter, we'll keep working to activate full service in your region with no extra charges."

Twitter fans all over the world would appear to have a lot to celebrate this afternoon.

Grooveshark Signs Deal With EMI

Mike Sachoff — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 16:33:18 +0000

Major music label EMI has dropped its copyright infringement lawsuit against music streaming service Grooveshark, reaching a deal to license its recording and publishing catalogs to the site.

"We think services like Grooveshark offer great music discovery options for fans," said Mark Piibe, EMI Music's Global Head of Digital Business Development.

Sam Tarantino,
Grooveshark CEO

"In turn, Grooveshark offers a new revenue stream for our artists and will help us learn more about how we can better connect different types of fans with artists."

Grooveshark allows music fans to stream music without having to download software or register. The basic service is available for free and is supported by advertising. Users of the site can pay $3 per month for access to Grooveshark's premium service, which offers unlimited ad-free streaming music.

Grooveshark still hopes to strike deals with the remaining major record labels including Sony, Warner, and Universal. Those deals could be reached within the next six months.

"EMI Music and EMI Music Publishing have collaborated with us to create a mutually sustainable deal which represents the future of digital music," says Grooveshark CEO Sam Tarantino.

"We will continue to deliver the best music service on the Internet to our users, and we will expand our capacity to strengthen fan-to-artist connections through our technology."

Terms of the deal between Grooveshark and EMI were not disclosed.

New Rumor Has Google Acquiring Akamai

Doug Caverly — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 10:01:30 +0000

At the moment, the Dow's down 0.24 percent and the Nasdaq's down 0.14 percent - it's not a great day for the market. One company's stock is doing more than all right, however, as there's a rumor that Google might acquire it.

Akamai, which deals in content delivery networks, is the organization that might be in Google's good graces. Some investors have accepted the idea to the point that they've sent Akamai's stock up 3.38 percent so far today.

That's not an inconsiderable amount, and there are some potential synergies between Google and Akamai. Akamai is a believer in cloud computing, for one thing (which could tie to Google Apps), and it's also interested in delivering HD video (which could benefit YouTube).

Doubters might want to consider what Eric Schmidt said 20 days ago regarding once-per-month acquisitions, as well. If he intends to stick to that estimate, the clock is sort of ticking.

However, it's far from certain that a takeover will occur. Eric Savitz and Dan Rayburn don't think it'll go through. Fil Zucchi added that he's heard a lot of Akamai acquisition rumors before. We'll see what happens, then.

Cisco Announces $3 Billion Starent Networks Acquisition

Chris Crum — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:46:12 +0000

Cisco announced today that it is acquiring Starent Networks for $35 per share in cash, bringing the total to about $2.9 billion. Starent Networks is a supplier of IP-based mobile infrastructure solutions.

"Cisco and Starent Networks share a common vision and bring complementary technologies designed to accelerate the transition to the Mobile Internet, where the network is the platform for Service Providers to launch, deliver and monetize the next generation of mobile multimedia applications and services," said Pankaj Patel, Senior Vice President/General Manager of Cisco's Service Provider Business.

"We are very pleased that Starent Networks will be joining the Cisco team, and we believe their products and engineering talent will greatly benefit our Service Provider customers as they build out their Mobile Internet offerings," said John Chambers, Chairman and CEO of Cisco.

"Combining Cisco's strength in Video and IP with Starent Networks' leading mobile infrastructure solutions, creates a compelling portfolio of products that provides an integrated architecture to offer rich, quality multimedia experiences to mobile subscribers on 3G and 4G networks," said Starent Networks President and CEO Ashraf Dahod.

The acquisition has been approved by the boards of directors of both companies. It is expected to close during the first half of 2010. The close date is subject to regulatory reviews.

Until the deal closes, the two companies will continue to operate separately. After it closes, Starent Networks will become the new Mobile Internet Technology Group, led by Dahod, within Cisco's Service Provider Business , led by Patel.

Target Launches Digital Newsstand

Mike Sachoff — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:38:32 +0000

Retailer Target has partnered with digital publishing company Zinio to offer a wide selection of magazines online.

The online newsstand offers single issue, subscription and archived issues at discounted prices. Target says the move complements the e-reading devices it sells online and in its stores.

"We are excited to partner with Zinio to offer our guests the unique ability to access digital publications," said Steve Eastman, President, Target.com.

Target's co-branded digital newsstand includes titles such as Elle, Parenting Early Years, Popular Science, Esquire, and Woman's Day.

The magazines have the look and feel of the print versions they are replacing. Zinio and Target will share the revenue they receive from each sale.

Zinio told Reuters that it would be "happy to see 1,000 or more new subscriptions (a month)" in the first year of the Target partnership. Zinio receives about 60 percent of its revenue from archival or current issue sales, and about 40 percent from subscriptions.

"Interest in buying and reading publications digitally is exploding," said Rich Maggiotto, President & CEO, Zinio.

"Target.com's reputation for being a 'one-stop shop' for entertainment needs now includes the most popular digital publications. We look forward to working with Target to grow this partnership."

Google, Microsoft May License Twitter Data

Doug Caverly — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 13:44:35 +0000

Real-time search - along with Twitter's bank account - may be about to receive a couple of big boosts. A new report indicates that both Google and Microsoft are interested in obtaining access to all of the info Twitter can serve up.

Kara Swisher wrote earlier this morning, "Twitter is in advanced talks . . . about striking data-mining deals, in which the companies would license a full feed from the microblogging service that could then be integrated into the results of their competing search engines."

This seems like a rather natural move considering that, earlier this month, Google began to let searchers limit their results to content less than one hour old. What's more, about four months ago, Bing started showing certain celebrities' recent tweets when people searched for their names in conjunction with the word "Twitter."

Then here's an important note relating to the business side of things: any deals would be non-exclusive, which on the one hand precludes a bidding war and definite win for one search engine. On the other, it leaves Twitter free to receive money from both sides. Plus Yahoo could jump in at some point.

Don't bet your iPhone on anything getting accomplished even where Google and Microsoft are concerned, however. Swisher wrote, "Sources said it is also possible that no agreement would be reached with either company."

YouTube Forms New Content ID Partnerships

Chris Crum — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 15:53:37 +0000

YouTube has announced several new partnerships with broadcast video delivery and management companies - Harmonic, Telestream, and Digital Rapids. YouTube says these partnerships will make it possible for many media companies to provide them with reference files for their content at about the same time it is being produced.

The idea is that this will improve YouTube's ability to work with major content producers so that they don't find their content on YouTube without getting paid.

"Think about it this way: when media companies -- like the BBC, HBO, and Time Warner -- record big news or sporting events live, they use technology from Harmonic, Telestream, and Digital Rapids to quickly convert that high quality video and audio content into the files they use to broadcast on cable, the Internet, mobile phones, and other platforms," explains YouTube Product Manager George Salem. "By integrating Content ID with this technology, YouTube is effectively inside broadcast headquarters, helping to convert footage into reference files almost instantaneously. This is a direct integration of YouTube into how these companies' create and broadcast content: much less custom work dealing with YouTube."

A couple years ago YouTube launched Content ID, and has made a number of improvements to the system since then. It scans over 100 years worth of video each day, according to YouTube, and the company says that the more its partners use it, the more money they (both parties) make. YouTube says over 33% of its monetized views come from videos that have been claimed by rights holders using Content ID.

YouTube is currently involved with a billion dollar lawsuit from Viacom that has been going on for 31 months. New evidence has reportedly come to light that doesn't bode to well for YouTube's defense.

Ask Introduces New Deal Feature

Mike Sachoff — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 13:17:04 +0000

Ask.com has added a new feature to its search engine homepage designed to help online shoppers find the best deals on the Web.

The IAC owned property has introduced "Ask Deals," a proprietary database of more than 1 million savings offers from national and local retailers across hundreds of product categories.

The Ask homepage now features a new tab labeled "Deals" for users who only want to view the best offers online. The Ask Deals database is continuously updated to provide users with the most current savings offers.

Ask Deals is powered by the company's proprietary "Deal Detector" technology, which uses Ask's search technology to scan online promotions, store circulars, and around 40 coupon sites.

The Deal Detector also searches user-generated content on forums, message boards, and blogs to find popular deals people are sharing with each other. Ask Deals filters out low-value, invalid, and expired offers.

"In a tough economy and with the holidays approaching, Ask Deals arrives at just the right time for consumers as a one-stop shop for value. It's the answer our users are looking for, too, since searches for coupons on Ask have shot up almost 50 percent in 2009," said Scott Garell, President, Ask Networks.

"Ask Deals saves consumers time and money through relevant, high-quality savings built right into our unique Ask search results page. By introducing our 'search stimulus package' with Ask Deals, we aim to lift a burden for consumers and make a meaningful impact in their lives."

Scripps Forms Partnership With How-To-Video Site

Mike Sachoff — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 15:16:21 +0000

Scripps Networks has partnered with how-to-video site 5min on a content and advertising agreement.

Under the agreement, Scripps whose properties include HGTV and the Food Network, will syndicate its video on 5min. Scripps will also sell advertising on 5min home and food categories. Additionally, 5min will provide videos from its library to Scripps online properties.

Ran Harnevo
CEO of 5min.

The 5min library has more than 100,000 how-to lifestyle videos. By working with 5min, Scripps aims to extend the audience for its online content through contextual distribution across the 5min network of home and food sites. Scripps says the partnership will allow it to increase it s exposure well providing a new source of views and revenue.

"It is increasingly difficult for advertisers to reach large and relevant online audiences in a meaningful way because they are spread across the Web," said Ran Harnevo, CEO of 5min.

"For major media companies like Scripps, 5min's value is real and immediate because we can extend their reach instantly while providing their advertisers with new avenues for delivering contextually relevant ads to large audiences of engaged online prospects, wherever they are."

Scripps says its partnership with 5min will allow advertisers to reach engaged and targeted audiences. 5min syndicates its short instructional videos to hundreds of sites reaching over 250 million unique monthly visitors.

Washington Post And Bloomberg To Launch News Service

Mike Sachoff — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 14:00:02 +0000

The Washington Post and Bloomberg are partnering to launch "The Washington Post News Service with Bloomberg News" which will provide content to newspapers, websites and other subscribers.

The move comes a day after the Post ended its partnership with the Tribune's Los Angeles Times.

Marcus Brauchli,
Executive Editor
The Washington Post

The Post and Bloomberg will produce a co-branded online business news page on washingtonpost.com, featuring content from both news outlets. The Post's news will also be available on Bloomberg's professional service, which has more than 300,000 users.

"This is a formidable collaboration," said Marcus Brauchli, executive editor of The Washington Post.

"It brings together The Post's vast expertise on politics and policy news in Washington with Bloomberg's highly regarded global financial, economic and political news franchise. It also brings together The Post's prize-winning feature writers and columnists with Bloomberg's team of top-notch journalistic talent."

The move by Bloomberg is an attempt to widen its reach beyond its core financial clients. Bloomberg is also a likely candidate to purchase BusinessWeek magazine from McGraw-Hill, according to Reuters.

The Washington Post News Service with Bloomberg News will launch January 1, 2010. It will feature 120 stories daily along with photos, graphics and other story elements.

Warner Music Videos Returning To YouTube

Doug Caverly — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 13:44:34 +0000

YouTube and Warner Music have kissed and made up, according to new reports. Or at least, Warner has agreed to make its music video catalog available through YouTube again, and the two organizations have reached a deal concerning how they'll share revenue.

Warner pulled its videos from YouTube about nine months ago due to a disagreement over money. Since then, users have been deprived of official, high-quality clips featuring famous acts like Eric Clapton, the Doobie Brothers, Johnny Cash, Marilyn Manson, Sarah McLachlan, Metallica, Muse, Nine Inch Nails, Opeth, the Pogues, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Frank Sinatra, and ZZ Top.

This put a serious dent in YouTube's usefulness as a music player. Also, as unofficial videos floated around, it seemed to increase the odds of YouTube finding itself on the receiving end of another lawsuit or two.

But Eliot Van Buskirk reported late yesterday, "YouTube is already encoding a batch of videos from Warner, in preparation to relaunch them on YouTube."

And with regards to the business-related details, he then continued, "Under terms of the 'just-signed' deal, Warner will be responsible for selling advertising against its own videos, so it will decide how much to charge for ads and find ad buyers on its own, rather than settling for whatever Google decides on. In order to attract premium advertisers, Warner plans to create a separate channel within YouTube consisting only of 'premium' content."

Yahoo7 Acquires Major Travel Site

Doug Caverly — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 13:49:06 +0000

The company that represents a 50-50 partnership between Yahoo and the Seven Network Limited, which is one of Australia's largest media groups, is on the move. Yahoo7 acquired Totaltravel.com for perhaps about $17 million.

Totaltravel is, as you might imagine, a travel site. It's a large one, too, boasting approximately 167,000 Australia- and New Zealand-centric listings. This in part explains Yahoo7's interest in Totaltravel, since CEO Rohan Lund said in a statement, "It's a great time to invest and we're confident that following the acquisition we will quickly move to the number one audience position in the online travel sites in Australia."

Lund also added, "Our premium content, the ability for advertisers to target an engaged audience and the scale of Yahoo!7 will deliver the best environment for advertisers interested in a travel-minded audience."

Then here are a couple of important related notes: Australia's domestic travel market was valued at about $56 billion last year, and the Australian Financial Review estimates that Yahoo7 paid just $17 million for Totaltravel. (Figures are converted from AU to US dollars.)

The acquisition is Yahoo7's first, so it'll be even more interesting than usual to see how it turns out and if any others follow in short order.

eBay's Donahoe Prepared To Spin Off PayPal

Doug Caverly — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 13:31:06 +0000

Despite being on the job for less than six months, new-ish president and CEO of eBay John Donahoe certainly isn't afraid to make changes. Even as obstacle after obstacle pops up to interfere with the sale of Skype, Donahoe announced that he often considers parting with PayPal.

A Bloomberg article reported that, at the Shop.org 2009 Annual Summit, "He said he regularly asks himself whether eBay is hampering PayPal's development."

That may not be just an idle, pass-time-in-the-shower sort of question, either. It almost sounds like Donahoe's already got the support of eBay's board of directors if he decides to make a move, since the CEO then stated, "When I feel the business will be better off separately, we'll do what we did with Skype."

And eBay's stock is up 1.13 percent in pre-market trading, which might indicate shareholder approval.

What do you make of this development? Let us know in the comments section below.

One last thing to note is that Donahoe didn't hint at any sort of timeframe, so whether he's thinking about the long term or initiating a sale next month is hard to say.

Schmidt Forecasts Monthly Acquisitions

Doug Caverly — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 20:57:13 +0000

Eric Schmidt has laid out a good news/bad news scenario for people who would like to become part of Google. On the one hand, he intends to acquire about one small company per month. On the other, it sounds like most of Google's "now hiring" signs are going to remain in storage.

According to Reuters, Schmidt said, "Acquisitions are turned on again at Google and we are doing our normal maneuvers, which is small companies. My estimate would be one-a-month acquisitions and these are largely in lieu of hiring."

It's difficult to read too far into that decision. Before the recession, Google would both buy companies on a regular basis and hire employees left and right. So Schmidt might holding back because he's still concerned about the economy's health. (Side note: Nasdaq dropped 0.69 percent today, while Google slipped 0.12 percent.)

But since Google's habit of taking on thousands of new workers sometimes drew criticism, he may just be reacting to that.

Anyway, Schmidt did claim in reference to the recession, "It's clear that the worst is behind us."

Also, don't be shocked if Google decides to spend more than a couple million dollars now and then, as Schmidt said, "There may be larger acquisitions, but they really are unpredictable."

Sun Losing $100 Million a Month as Oracle Waits

Chris Crum — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 13:57:31 +0000

Sun Microsystems is losing about $100 million a month according to Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle, the company that's set to acquire Sun. Oracle is waiting to get clearance from European regulators before the deal can go through and Oracle can step in and try to put an end to this loss.

Though understandably frustrated, Ellison is optimistic about the deal being approved. He conveyed this to his audience in a speech at a Churchill Club event in San Jose last night.

If money is really being lost at the rate Ellison says, you have to think he is tapping his foot quite rapidly. This is after all a $7.4 billion deal, and $100 million a month is not exactly small potatoes.

The deal was announced back in April. Oracle would acquire Sun for $7.4 billion at a rate of $9.50 per share in cash. The two companies have been long-term partners, for over 20 years. The acquisition was originally expected to close sometime in the summer, and it was unanimously approved by Sun's board of directors, but they're still waiting on the EU to approve it.

The longer it takes to get the deal approved (assuming it does eventually get approved), the more jobs could be in jeopardy. "Analysts have predicted Oracle will have to make major cuts in Sun's workforce and spending, to achieve its goal of increasing operating profit from Sun's business," notes Brandon Bailey at Mercury News. "Some analysts have said an extended delay could lead Oracle to cut more deeply, since uncertainty over Sun's future may be driving more customers to rivals such as Hewlett-Packard and IBM."

The EU is worried that Oracle acquiring MySQL would discourage competition, but Ellison maintains that it would do no such thing. He says that Oracle has no intention of spinning that unit off, which would greatly improve the chances of getting the deal approved.

The EU says that it may take until January to complete its review of the deal. If Sun keeps losing money at the same rate, the deal may look significantly soured.