According to stories that ran on Friday and Sunday in the Wall Street Journal, both Microsoft and Google are potentially going to bid for Yahoo. Various unnamed sources and “people speaking on condition of anonymity” told the WSJ that Microsoft is planning to act as source of financing for others in exchange for preferred stock […]
Yesterday Yahoo released Q3 revenues. While they generally met expectations, and operating income came in at the “high end” of Yahoo’s guidance, overall revenues and profit declined: Revenue excluding traffic acquisition costs (“revenue ex-TAC”) was $1,072 million for the third quarter of 2011, a 5 percent decrease from the third quarter of 2010. Income from operations […]
The not-so-shocking news came yesterday afternoon that embattled Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz was fired. When Bartz came to power in January 2009 I compared her to then newly elected Barak Obama. Both confronted crises and high expectations. Both have seen goodwill erode and give way to disappointment. Low Employee Approval The task of both chief […]
Major international mergers and acquisitions typically must be approved by regulators in multiple jurisdictions before they can be consummated. As a practical matter this has historically meant North America and Europe for most Western companies. But as more US-based and European companies expand into China the Chinese government is increasingly getting in on the action. […]
There was a time before the “Great Recession” when a cluster of companies were seemingly always bidding against one another to acquire the hot startup of the month. The core of that group consisted of Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, eBay, AOL and News Corp. But while AOL and Yahoo still buy companies — AOL bought HuffingtonPost […]
By unique viewer count (per comScore) YouTube is more than two and a half times the size of the next largest US video site, Vevo. It also sees more than five times the monthly minutes of Vevo. Only Hulu approaches YouTube in terms of time spent or engagement. However Hulu is the most heavily and […]
Two well-known online marketing agencies are joining forces. RKG (Rimm-Kaufman Group), based in Charlottesville, Virginia, has announced its acquisition of Bend, Oregon-based AudetteMedia. The acquisition allows RKG to continue expanding its service lineup. Long established as a leader in paid search marketing, RKG has recently added services such as shopping engine management, social media advertising […]
Hulu is apparently a popular dance partner at the moment. The Los Angeles Times is reporting that Google, Microsoft and Yahoo are all in “confidential” discussions about buying the popular video service. YouTube remains the dominant video site online, but it’s built around user-generated, amateur videos. Hulu, on the other hand, has agreements with major […]
In an apparent move to bolster its own ad sales efforts and provide services to large publishers, Google has reportedly made a $400 million purchase of Admeld, a company that builds technology to help ad sellers maximize the value of their inventory. Admeld has relationships with the Weather Channel, IDG TechNetwork, and large newspaper companies […]
Over the past week there were rumors that Google and Facebook were both interested in buying Skype. Then Om Malik reported that Microsoft was really the one interested and the Wall Street Journal confirmed yesterday that Microsoft would be paying a remarkable $8.5 billion for the company, making it Microsoft’s largest acquisition to date: At […]
After months of lobbying and speculation the US appears ready to approve Google’s $700 million acquisition of travel software company ITA, with some interesting “safeguards” or provisions. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Justice Department approval of the deal would come with ongoing monitoring of the deal by regulators: Google Inc. and the Justice […]
Despite what many believe to be an overheated market for tech start-ups, Google hasn’t been shy about spending. Last week it bought security company Zynamics; today it reportedly agreed to acquire BeatThatQuote.com; it’s still waiting for Justice Department approval on the $700 million purchase of ITA Software announced last year; and it reportedly offered $5 billion for […]
Money.co.uk reports that Google will be buying BeatThatQuote.com. Google and BeatThatQuote.com have not officially confirmed this as of yet. BeatThatQuote.com is a price comparison websites for loans and financial products. The site offers comparison pricing on loans, mortgage rates, credit card rates, insurance products and more. Google has been known to offer comparison ads for […]
CBS has wisely acquired internet TV guide Clicker, sometimes incorrectly called a video search engine. Clicker CEO Jim Lanzone has been named President of CBS Interactive. He’ll bring tremendous energy and intelligence (and a sense of humor) to the role. The acquisition price wasn’t disclosed. Clicker raised roughly $19 million from investors. CBS also owns […]
There are three companies that we know are interested in or “hungry” for Twitter: Microsoft, Google and Facebook. In an article on bubbly valuations, the Wall Street Journal says that Twitter is again in “low-level” acquisition talks: Executives at both Facebook Inc. and Google Inc., among other companies, have held low-level talks with those at […]
Do you recall the merger of AT&T and Cingular Wireless back in 2007? At the time, experts questioned AT&T’s decision to retire Cingular’s brand name. After all, it was very popular. But now the AT&T brand is stronger than ever, and hardly anyone remembers the brand they cut. When faced with a merger today, marketers […]
The popular questions and answers site, Answers.com has announced they have been acquired by AFCV Holdings, LLC. for $127 million. AFCV Holdings is paying $10.50 per share for the outstanding shares. “This is a great outcome for our shareholders,” said Bob Rosenschein, Founder, Chairman and CEO. “After an exciting six years as a public company, […]
SayNow has announced Google has just acquired them. SayNow has a platform that allows voice messaging, one-on-one conversations, and group calls to be instantly integrated into Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Android, or iPhone applications. SayNow’s cofounders, Nikhyl & Ujjwal, said: We are thrilled to announce that we have been acquired by Google. Since 2005, we’ve explored […]
The would be AOL-Yahoo merger is apparently off, according to Crain’s New York Business. The site is reporting that “AOL tried to either get enough backing to make a run at Yahoo, or get Yahoo interested in buying it . . . Yahoo didn’t bite, and AOL didn’t have its ducks lined up to be […]
This morning brings another report of AOL M&A machinations involving ways to merge with or be acquired by Yahoo, now that both sites have very similar missions and strategies. They’re in a way like the Ford and Chevy of the internet these days: workmanlike but not very glamorous. Maybe that’s unfair to Ford. Both Yahoo […]
Groupon has apparently rejected the $5 billion-plus takeover bid by Google, electing to remain independent and probably go public later. AllThingsD is independently reporting that Groupon’s revenues are actually closer to $2 billion than the $500 million previously estimated. I was told several months ago by Groupon President Rob Solomon that the company was on […]
Google is sitting on more than $30 billion in cash so maybe $5 billion isn’t so much in that context. But it seems crazy (capital C) to me for Google to pay that kind of premium for the company — making it by far the largest acquisition in Google’s long history of acquisitions — despite […]
Whew. The rumors of a Google-Groupon deal are getting hotter. Yesterday, there was a report the deal was done for $2 billion. Today, there are two reports that negotiations continue with a price of $5 to $6 billion being discussed. Back on November 19, the first report of a Google-Groupon deal came out from Kara […]
Over the past week, there has been many rumors that Google would be making a buy-out offer to Groupon, the popular local deals site. Those rumors have heated up this morning, with Vator.tv reporting the deal has closed, with Google buying Groupon for $2.5 billion. Google or Groupon has yet to confirm the deal but […]
Kara Swisher reports Google is looking at Groupon as a possible acquisition. She said she has “multiple sources” close to the deal that say Google is very interesting in making a bid on Groupon. Google did not confirm the rumors but did reply to Kara’s press request in Google fashion: Per usual, we don’t comment […]
A riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma: according to the Wall Street Journal and Reuters, based on the Journal’s report yesterday, financial advisers have been hired by AOL to “explore various strategic options for the company, one of which includes a possible tie-up” with Yahoo. This is just the latest installment of the […]
A couple weeks ago, there were some rumors that AOL may buy Yahoo. This past week’s Saturday Night Live’s news brief skit with John Mulaney started off talking about that news bit. John Mulaney said, and here is the transcript: First up in the world of technology. I heard this week that AOL might be […]
There are rumors flying that AOL and private equity firms may be trying to buy Yahoo in a complex transaction that would involve a likely sale of Yahoo’s stake in Alibaba. Matt wrote up the item last night. Bloomberg has more this morning suggesting that, as with Microsoft a couple of years ago, Yahoo is […]
Rumors are circulating tonight that Yahoo might be a candidate to be bought, possibly by some combination of AOL and various private-equity firms. The Wall Street Journal report is citing “people familiar with the matter” who describe this as one possible scenario: Silver Lake Partners and Blackstone Group LP are among the firms that have […]
Yahoo has seen a long list of talented people leave the company during the organizational turmoil of the past few years. However it appeared the company was stabilizing and potentially even back on track toward growth and forward momentum. However AllThingsD earlier reported and today confirmed (before official confirmation from CEO Carol Bartz) that three […]
It’s being reported this morning that Google is buying a “social calendar” for mobile devices called Plannr (we’re back to the heady vowel-free days). There have been a number of largely unsuccessful efforts to create group or social calendars in the past and there are several existing competitors in the segment, most notably Plancast. The […]
Thursday night, Cuil, the Google killer, went offline. The first report I’ve seen about this was Friday afternoon at TechCrunch, it is like no one noticed for several hours. TechCrunch reports Cuil went down after last minute acquisition talks failed. They said “Cuil was in the final stages of an acquisition as of last Wednesday, […]
In what is becoming an annual ritual Google announces a dramatic acquisition, pundits speculate about the potentially market-changing impact and anti-trust investigators give it a long, hard look — only to allow it in the end. Last year the transaction in question was AdMob; this year it’s ITA software. Since the roughly $700 million deal […]
AllThingsD is reporting that Yahoo is negotiating with mom-oriented social network CafeMom for a potential $100 million acquisition — the price Yahoo recently paid for Associated Content. Yahoo has of course tried to buy other companies unsuccessfully in the past (most recently Foursquare, according to rumor) so it’s not clear it will happen. But this […]
Lycos, that old search engine, was reportedly sold for $36 million. Ybrant Digital, an Indian-based digital marketing solutions company, bought Lycos from Korean-based Daum. Daum purchased Lycos back in 2004 for $95.4 million—and that was a mere fraction of the of the $12.5 billion Spanish telecom company Terra paid for Lycos at the peak of […]
Google Steps Up Acquisitions as Some Internal Projects Falter from Bloomberg reports Google has doubled their anticipated acquisition levels in 2010 and plans on keeping that pace going. In early January 2009 Google halted acquisitions, but in September 2009 said they would begin shopping for businesses to acquire again. Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt said he […]
Google has signed an agreement to acquire travel reservations software company ITA. The purchase price is reportedly about $700 million. We speculated about this and the likely travel industry and potential regulatory fallout earlier this week. Google put up a site to explain and promote the deal. Indeed, Google knows it’s girding for a fight […]
After a protracted set of M&A discussions with Yahoo and Facebook (and perhaps others), Foursquare announced that it had secured $20 million in funding from several VCs: Union Square Ventures, O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz. CEO Dennis Crowley discussed the funding and how it would be used in his blog post: With this new […]
Most people have never heard of ITA. However it’s the dominant company that provides reservations (inventory management) software and performs other functions for the travel industry. The company’s client list includes major airlines such as American and Continental as well as popular travel sites such as Kayak and Orbitz. ITA is foundational infrastructure for many […]
If you felt a rumble yesterday amongst the search marketing ranks, it was probably caused by the news that four well-known marketing companies announced a merger into one new agency known as BlueGlass Interactive. The companies coming together are 10e20, Search & Social, Brent Csutoras Inc., and SecondStep Search. In a blog post announcing the […]