Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
Yahoo is said to have scheduled a special board of directors meeting on Friday to determine, effectively, the fate of the company. After a week of hectic negotiating, it is clear that no one is going to step in with a competing acquisition offer to what Microsoft put on the table last Friday. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/08/yahoo-board-to-determine-fate-of-company-today 2/8)
We’ve speculated previously that Microsoft would retain the Yahoo brand, but until now its been a well educated guess. In a BusinessWeek article, Steve Ballmer now confirms it, saying simply that “Yahoo, the brand, will live.” (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/08/ballmer-confirms-yahoo-brand-will-live-on-msn-the-likely-casualty 2/8)
Yahoo launched its live streaming service Yahoo Live yesterday, the first major internet company to enter the live streaming space against startups like Justin.tv, Blogtv, Mogulus and others. If Techcrunch was putting together a report card on Yahoo Live, day one would simply read FAIL. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/07/yahoo-live-fails-to-scale 2/7)
Google is yet to receive any objections from European Union regulators about its proposed $3.1 billion purchase of Internet advertising company DoubleClick, which suggests that the EU is close to approving the deal. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission signed off on the deal in December. (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601204&sid=aAaNYSD2wPRM 2/8)
Norman Pearlstine, managing director of the Carlyle Group, says that Time Warner has a “strong” chance of selling off its AOL access unit. Also, CEO Jeff Bewkes is “happy” with the cash flow at magazine division Time Inc. Speculation of a possible sale of Time Inc. is “outside the company.” (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601204&sid=aNKVCvRqH3Bk 2/8)
Ustream.tv is said to be in advanced talks with Microsoft to be acquired for $50 million, according to a report from Valleywag. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/08/microsoft-to-acquire-ustreamtv-for-50-million 2/8)
CBS is teaming up with social networking site Facebook to offer March Madness brackets as part of its NCAA basketball-related tournament coverage. Users will be able to compare their picks with friends on Facebook, and CBS plans to sell ad sponsorships tied to the site. (http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2008/02/04/daily71.html 2/8)
The U.S. Dept. of Justice launched an antitrust investigation into price fixing on the yet-to-launch online subscription music service TotalMusic backed by Universal and Sony BMG, reports MusicAlly. The DoJ also looked closely at Universal and Sony’s former PressPlay as well as the Warner/EMI/BMG’s MusicNet venture with RealNetworks, both of which were eclipsed by iTunes when the iPod took off.
Now Amazon is making a move in the direction of becoming a shopping search engine. This week, it launched a program called Product Ads, which lets any Web merchant buy cost-per-click ads on Amazon linked to specific product searches. No announcement was made other than a blast e-mail to product marketers and the addition of a paragraph at the bottom of this page describing how you can advertise with Amazon. Although it is a limited test for now (in the Electronics & Computers, Home & Garden, Tools, and Toys, Kids & Baby categories), Product Ads is a direct response to the encroachment of Google and product search engines like eBay’s Shopping.com. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/07/amazon-quietly-launches-product-ads-secretly-wants-to-become-a-shopping-search-engine 2/7)
Among Super Bowl advertisers, the fastest growing web site from Super Bowl Sunday to Monday was Fox Interactive Media’s MySpace.com/SuperBowlAds , according to Nielsen Online, increasing 104% from 441,000 to 900,000 unique visitors. Victoria’s Secret and FOX Sports on MSN also saw significant daily gains, growing 86 percent and 72 percent, respectively. Web traffic increased 24% overall from Sunday to Monday among Super Bowl advertisers collectively.
BravoTV.com has launched a web spin-off of Project Runway following the trials and tribulations of former designer and Project participant Malan Breton. This season’s 12 designers will also participate in an online fashion challenge running Feb. 21 – March 6, judged by BravoTV.com users.
Super Tuesday web results are trickling in. ABCNews.com reported that page views spiked 53% from a typical day with most of the traffic visiting the Politics section, which featured an interactive map providing real-time results. CNN.com is reporting 97 million page views and 11.9 million unique visitors for the day, both highs since the site relaunched on July 1.
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