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June 12, 2008

Google-Yahoo Search Partnership Today?

Google and Yahoo may announce a partnership this afternoon at 4:30pm EST / 1:30pm PST. At least, that's the rumor coming from TechCrunch. Of course, this is the same rumor that the Wall St. Journal published on May 2, 2008.

There's no question a Google-Yahoo partnership would throw a wrench into Microsoft's merger plans to create MicroHoo. Billionaire investor Carl Icahn's efforts to oust the current Yahoo management would also be derailed.

We're skeptical there's a billion dollars in cost savings through a Google-Yahoo search partnership. In the short term, it's a Yahoo win.

In the long term, a search partnership would turn Yahoo into just another portal.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 2:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

May 9, 2008

SEW Experts: Yahoo Rejects Microsoft: Worst Decision Ever?

There have been some major missed opportunities in our industry; decisions that must haunt those involved. Arguably the biggest faux pas of our industry came in 1999, when Excite had the opportunity to buy Google for $1 million and refused. In today's SEM Crossfire column, "Yahoo Rejects Microsoft: Worst Decision Ever?," Frank Watson wonders if Yahoo's turn-down of Microsoft's offer could trump it?

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 10, 2008

Google CEO to MicroHoo: We'll Bank on Frank

Google CEO Eric Schmidt has named legendary Bubble 1.0 i-banker Frank Quattrone as an adviser to help reverse engineer the Yahoo-AOL and MSN- MySpace entanglements, according to the NYT blog DealBook .

For eagle-eyed readers of press releases, the news should come as no surprise. As Dealbook noted, Eric Schmidt gave a testimonial for the recently launched financial services venture last month:

"The launch of Qatalyst is an important development for the technology industry," said Eric Schmidt, Chairman and CEO of Google. "Frank and his team bring unparalleled industry knowledge, a unique 25-year market perspective and candid, insightful judgment that CEOs greatly value on important strategic initiatives. I look forward to working with him again and am very enthusiastic about Qatalyst's prospects for success."

Quattrone has advised tech companies globally since 1981 while building technology banking departments for Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse. He was also the superstar banker who faced 18 months in jail but won his appeal in a U.S. court in Manhattan.

Qatalyst Group is a technology-focused merchant banking boutique based in San Francisco. Qatalyst Partners, its investment banking business, will provide high-end M&A and corporate finance advice to technology companies globally.

Qatalyst Capital Partners, its investing business, will make selective principal investments, typically alongside leading venture capital and private equity firms.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 6:13 PM | Permalink

April 2, 2008

Google Gets Out of the SEO Business

Google is getting itself out of a somewhat sticky situation by deciding to sell Performics Search Marketing, which it acquired as part of the DoubleClick deal. It will retain the affiliate marketing portion of the DoubleClick Performics business.

Since Google announced its intention to acquire DoubleClick last year, Google had faced criticism of the potential conflict of interest that would be created by Google owning a search marketing firm. After all, why wouldn't customers assume, even if it weren't the case, that a Google-owned agency would have inside information?

According to Tom Phillips, director of the DoubleClick integration at Google: Itâ€™s clear to us that we do not want to be in the search engine marketing business. Maintaining objectivity in both search and advertising is paramount to Googleâ€™s mission and core to the trust we ask from our users. For this reason, we plan to sell the Performics search marketing business to a third party. We believe this will allow us to maintain objectivity and the search marketing business to continue to grow and innovate and serve its customers. While we have not yet identified a buyer, weâ€™ve received preliminary interest from a number of our current partners. Search Marketing will continue to run as a separate entity until the division is sold.

So that only leaves one major search engine who's also in the SEO business: Microsoft, which acquired Avenue A | Razorfish and its SEO business with the aQuantive acquisition.

In the meantime, the New York Times is reporting that Google will lay off 300 at DoubleClick. This comes as no surprise, since CEO Eric Schmidt hinted at cuts when the acquisition closed last month.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 8:46 PM | Permalink

March 31, 2008

Google + DoubleClick = 69% of Online Advertising Market

When Google raised concerns over a possible Microsoft-Yahoo merger, it may have just been the pot calling the kettle black. According to new stats released by Attributor, Google's acquisition of DoubleClick gives them a whopping 69% of the online advertising market share. This comes in the wake of news that Google saw 59.2 percent of all US searches in February.

Furthermore, DoubleClick has 48% share of sites with 1 million unique visitors per month, while Google enjoys a whopping 71.38% share of sites with less than 100,000 unique visitors per month.

MSN has a lot of work to do if it wants to catch Google, as Steve Ballmer has declared in recent months. Currently, they only have 9.86% of the total market share. Even adding Yahoo, with an 11.54% market share, they will only come in at 21.4%.

Attributor also shared telling statistics for content distribution. For every article Attributor tracks, there are an average of 20 copies published. 57% of copies do not contain links back to the author, and 64% of copies have ads on them. Most copies are published on sites with less than 1 million unique visitors.

Attributor analyzed 68 million domains for their ad-server crawls and compared it with unique user data from Compete.com.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 1:00 PM | Permalink

March 12, 2008

Job Cuts Likely in Google-DoubleClick Merger

In the wake of EUâ€™s approval of Googleâ€™s DoubleClick acquisition comes the news that job cuts will likely result from the deal. Google Chairman and CEO, in a statement posted on the companyâ€™s official blog, said "As with most mergers, there may be reductions in headcount. We expect these to take place in the U.S. and possibly in other regions as well. We know that DoubleClick is built on the strength of its people. For this reason weâ€™ll strive to minimize the impact of this process on all of our clients and employees."

Staff reductions will be the result of an alignment process to eliminate redundancies and ensure that roles have been assigned to the right people. Wrote Schmidt, "An immediate task weâ€™ll undertake over the next few weeks is matching and aligning DoubleClick employees with our organizational plan for the business. This will involve determining the right staffing levels for all functions and will ensure that we have the right people assigned to the right responsibilities within Google."

Most of the cuts will occur within the United States. Overseas cuts will be subject to meetings with employee representatives and local laws. Google expects to finalize the process by April.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:36 AM | Permalink

March 11, 2008

EU Approves Google DoubleClick Deal

The EU approved Google's acquisition of DoubleClick today and Google's ready.

As speculated last week, the EU today approved Google's Acquisition of DoubleClick. The $3.1 billion deal went through despite concerns over privacy and antitrust issues.

The commission addressed those concerns by stating that users still had access to similar services offered by Microsoft, Yahoo, and AOL.

Penry Price, Google VP Advertising Sales, said this morning that Google will soon start integrating DoubleClick technology with Google's online platforms.

During the due diligence phase in mergers & acquisitions, companies typically review technology platforms. Comprehensive due diligence engages all relevant disciplines: legal, tax, accounting, investment banking, general management, information technology (IT) and human resources (HR), among others.

Price noted that Google hasn't reviewed DoubleClick technology during the review process, so there's not yet a product road map in place. Expect that to change soon as Google engineers upgrade DoubleClick technology.

Last December, the US Federal Trade Commission approved the deal, providing momentum for today's decision. The EU typically does not reject mergers that the United States has approved.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:27 AM | Permalink

March 7, 2008

Why Digg's Worth $200 Mllion or More to Google

Digg IPO? No. Digg FSBO. For Sale By Owner. Again.

The auction for social search engine Digg begins when Microsoft and Google make their bid. Both search engines are digging through Digg's financials to see if they can make the numbers work. Microsoft signed a three year advertising deal with Digg last year. Microsoft's guarantees providing the lion's share of Digg's revenue.

Did Steve Ballmer like his Digg advertising deal so much he decided to buy the company? Not at all. So who else might bid? Time Warner. NewsCorp. Round up the usual suspects.

TechCrunch reported this morning that two media titans are in the mix too for the fire sale prices being discussed. Mike Arrington notes this isn't the first time there's been due diligence with Digg. Last year the number was $300 million. This year? Only $200-$225 million.

Microsoft, expected to bid lower, may cancel their advertising deal if they lose out (again) in a bidding war with Google.

Blodget says "a knowledgeable SAI reader" values Digg at $100 million. In any case, Kevin Rose, Digg's co-founder, must know his tech team can't satisfy his customer base with the new Digg voting algorithm that essentially takes the social out of the social search engine.

Google would be able to design a superior Digg voting algorithm for the community; Digg apparently can't.

Arrington observes that Google wouldn't value Digg based on revenues. No surprise there. Google's acquisition of YouTube as a video search engine wasn't valued based on revenue either. Nor was Microsoft's stake in Facebook.

For Google, the acquisition of Digg would have strategic value. Ask Google execs what the near-term future of search looks like and they'll answer "social search."

Digg would be an extension of Google's search engine empire: Digg votes may become one more signal in the Google natural and paid search algorithms. Diggers voting for YouTube. A link is a vote in PageRank. Why wouldn't a Digg vote be one too?

Google may have reduced PageRank for Digg-juiced sites that rose in natural search rankings due to Digg. No company knows the power of Digg better than Google.

It's not about the short-term AdSense revenue all those Diggers would provide. It's about their behavior: what they vote for and why.

Search behavior is the key driver behind Google's acquisitions. The benefits of amassing a higher share of searches on the Internet accrues to Google. No one on Wall St. values a company based on the activities of its members.

But then no company before Google has ever built an empire as a global R&D lab.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 8:57 AM | Permalink

March 6, 2008

EU Approval of Google's DoubleClick Acquisition is Imminent

The EU is reportedly planning to approve Google's $3.1 billion acquisition of online advertising powerhouse DoubleClick. Though the Commission gave itself an April 2 deadline, approval is expected to come as early as next Tuesday, according to Bloomberg.com.

The EU decision comes on the heels of the US Federal Trade Commission's approval this past December. This will come as unwelcome news to Microsoft, which has been complaining about the potential for Google to gain monopoly status in the online advertising market. The company said last year that the acquisition would provide bring 80 percent of the market under Google's control. Last year, Microsoft acquired DoubleClick competitor aQuantive for $6 billion.

Another concern of both Microsoft and EU Commissioners has been the question of privacy with the combination of Google and DoubleClick's massive databases. But with the EU apparently set to approve the acquisition unconditionally, those fears have either been alleviated or will go unanswered for the time being.

The news gave Google a slight boost in stock prices today, which have declined in recent months over reports of a slowdown in growth on clicks for their internet ads.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:00 PM | Permalink

February 6, 2008

Yahoo Desperately Seeking Suitor

With limited options, Yahoo board members face increased pressure to accept Microsoft's hostile bid. Yahoo has resisted Microsoft's advances in the past, convincing shareholders a turnaround was just around the corner.

So how much money did Yahoo leave on the table by declining the earlier offer? Microsoft won't publicly reveal the bid. Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang would be loath to share the offer from the company the Valley loves to loathe.

Here's the rumored Microsoft bid made last year: $40 plus per share. That's the number Oppenheimer analyst Sandeep Aggarwal cited in a note to clients, suggesting a potential 26-40 percent upside for investors from the current offer of $31 per share - if Yahoo can negotiate a better deal for its shareholders or find a more suitable suitor.

So who's willing - besides Google - to play white knight to Yahoo's digital damsel in distress?

The knights hardly comprise a round table. Only five companies have been widely reported as possible suitors: AT&T, Comcast, News Corp, Time Warner, and Verizon Communications. None has stepped up to enter the fray. Rupert Murcoch of News Corp publicly stated he didn't plan to prepare a competitive bid.

The Wall St. Journal (subscription) reported this morning that Yahoo's hoping against hope that a rival bidder or a business tie-up with Google would save the day. Google desperately wants to derail the deal, even though their share of searches continue to erode Yahoo's market share.

Mike Arrington of TechCrunch expects shareholders to approve the deal soon.

A Google-Yahoo partnership, though, isn't an ideal solution for Yahoo either. It's not as if Google could sign a noncompete agreement with Yahoo in lines of business Yahoo has strength in: local mobile, e-mail, display advertising, or e-mail.

How much revenue Google would be willing to forego by partnering with Yahoo in search also remains in question. In its quest to index the world's information, Google has become a victim of its own success.

A grizzly bear hug (not even a teddy bear hug) from Ballmer may have squeezed the life from Silcon Valley's once and future king.

Now it seems Google's mouth-to-mouth resuscitation of Yahoo's search business will be the only hope for Yahoo's survival.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 8:07 AM | Permalink | TrackBack

February 3, 2008

Microsoft-Yahoo A-Bombed by Google

Google blasted the Microsoft bid for Yahoo on the official Google Blog this afternoon. SVP Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer David Drummond, characterized Microsoft's proposed acquisition as a "hostile bid" that threatened the underlying principles of the Internet: "openness and innovation."

Google then went nuclear, dropping the "A-bomb" -- invoking anti-trust concerns and citing as evidence Microsoft's "unfair practices" and "legacy of serious legal and regulatorty offenses" in the Netscape browser wars.

Google also stated, "Microsoft plus Yahoo! equals an overwhelming share of instant messaging and web email accounts."

Google went on to note, "And between them, the two companies operate the two most heavily trafficked portals on the Internet."

Google's conclusion? A question all regulators and policymakers need to ask themselves:

"Could a combination of the two take advantage of a PC software monopoly to unfairly limit the ability of consumers to freely access competitors' email, IM, and web-based services?"

Last we heard, Google was pleased with the "App" strategy that would accelerate the transition of search from the desktop to mobile devices.

Former Netscape exec and Google CEO Eric Schmidt said on the Jan 31 Q407 earnings call, "The App strategy, which we announced earlier in the year, now fully visible -- more innovation, data portability, all the apps now either in place or coming and mobile, which we are very excited with Android, the My Location service as part of Maps and many other new features that are both out and coming. So we are optimistic about 2008. We have growing revenue streams across a broad range of verticals and markets."

So was the Google celebration of "cloud computing" an illusion?

Or is Google just dropping a smartbomb on the Microsoft-Yahoo combo?

Welcome, to the new "slash and burn" take no prisoners politics of Google lobbying.

Full text of Google's response after the jump.

Yahoo! and the future of the Internet

2/03/2008 11:45:00 AM Posted by David Drummond, Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer

The openness of the Internet is what made Google -- and Yahoo! -- possible. A good idea that users find useful spreads quickly. Businesses can be created around the idea. Users benefit from constant innovation. It's what makes the Internet such an exciting place.

So Microsoft's hostile bid for Yahoo! raises troubling questions. This is about more than simply a financial transaction, one company taking over another. It's about preserving the underlying principles of the Internet: openness and innovation.

Could Microsoft now attempt to exert the same sort of inappropriate and illegal influence over the Internet that it did with the PC? While the Internet rewards competitive innovation, Microsoft has frequently sought to establish proprietary monopolies -- and then leverage its dominance into new, adjacent markets.

Could the acquisition of Yahoo! allow Microsoft -- despite its legacy of serious legal and regulatory offenses -- to extend unfair practices from browsers and operating systems to the Internet? In addition, Microsoft plus Yahoo! equals an overwhelming share of instant messaging and web email accounts. And between them, the two companies operate the two most heavily trafficked portals on the Internet. Could a combination of the two take advantage of a PC software monopoly to unfairly limit the ability of consumers to freely access competitors' email, IM, and web-based services? Policymakers around the world need to ask these questions -- and consumers deserve satisfying answers.

This hostile bid was announced on Friday, so there is plenty of time for these questions to be thoroughly addressed. We take Internet openness, choice and innovation seriously. They are the core of our culture. We believe that the interests of Internet users come first -- and should come first -- as the merits of this proposed acquisition are examined and alternatives explored.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 6:05 PM | Permalink

Google Weighs In On Microhoo: It May Be Evil

David Drummond, Google SVP corporate development and chief legal officer, issued the company's official response to Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Yahoo this afternoon. Essentially, Google's position is combining its two main competitors could be bad for the Internet...even border on evil.

Drummond says in the official Google statement:

"It's about preserving the underlying principles of the Internet: openness and innovation.

"Could Microsoft now attempt to exert the same sort of inappropriate and illegal influence over the Internet that it did with the PC? While the Internet rewards competitive innovation, Microsoft has frequently sought to establish proprietary monopolies -- and then leverage its dominance into new, adjacent markets.

"Could the acquisition of Yahoo! allow Microsoft -- despite its legacy of serious legal and regulatory offenses -- to extend unfair practices from browsers and operating systems to the Internet? In addition, Microsoft plus Yahoo! equals an overwhelming share of instant messaging and web email accounts. And between them, the two companies operate the two most heavily trafficked portals on the Internet. Could a combination of the two take advantage of a PC software monopoly to unfairly limit the ability of consumers to freely access competitors' email, IM, and web-based services? Policymakers around the world need to ask these questions -- and consumers deserve satisfying answers.

"This hostile bid was announced on Friday so there is plenty of time for these questions to be thoroughly addressed. We take Internet openness, choice and innovation seriously. They are the core of our culture. We believe that the interests of Internet users come first -- and should come first -- as the merits of this proposed acquisition are examined and alternatives explored."

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 5:18 PM | Permalink

January 27, 2008

Google NYC and Digitas Lead Google-Publicis Partnership

Google's Tim Armstrong, president North American advertising and commerce, and Penry Price, vice-president of North American sales, with Digitas Chairman and CEO David Kenny will lead the global Google-Publicis partnership.

Abby Klaasen broke the news late last night in Advertising Age. The news tops off a terrific week for Digitas, which won the P&G Crest digital account. Crest is P&G's second biggest spending brand online. Should be interesting to see what products Google engineers can build to help digital agencies scale their business.

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, the Google Publicis partnership elicited a scathing exchange between WPP CEO Sir Martin Sorrell and Publicis CEO Maurice Levy. (Google CEO Eric Schmidt was, in effect, switzerland.)

Nikki Sandison of Brand Republic reported the barbs traded by Sorrell and Levy this weekend. Sir Martin Sorrell told Reuters:

"Next time I meet with Eric Schmidt, I think we'll send out a press release. This morning I met with Maurice Levy, does this mean we're putting together a joint venture?

"What Publicis is doing represents a little bit of a concern that they didn't get the technology right. I think Maurice is acknowledging a bit of an Achilles heel when it comes to technology."

No comment from CEO-engineer Eric Schmidt, but technologist/engineer CEO Maurice Levy didn't take the slight lightly, telling Reuters:

"I'm sorry Martin said that -- it's really cheap, but it's probably the result of his lack of understanding of technology.

"He's a financier, I'm an engineer, and you can see the difference. I'm pleased with what we have done, and I'm sorry that my dear friend has not understood it."

With "dear friends" like that, who needs frenemies?

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 10:18 PM | Permalink

January 16, 2008

$25 Million Google Giveaway

When one of the Fortune 50 Most Powerful Women in Business leads a conference call, you can bet Search Engine Watch will be there. Sheryl Sandberg, Vice President, Global Online Sales and Operations, Google Inc. and Board Member, Google.org will join top Google executives to discuss the launch of five strategic Google.org initiatives.

No hints in the press release on how much green will be found in the initiatives outside of the color of money. When Google Sales and Operations leads the way, the smart money's on an innovative program.

From the Google press release:

WHEN: Thursday, January 17, 2008, 9:00am PST/ 12:00pm EST

WHY: In its continuing effort to use the power of information and technology to help people better their lives, Google.org tomorrow will roll out five core initiatives that will be the focus of its philanthropic efforts over the next five to ten years.

The $25 million? Earmarked for new grants and investments to initial Google.org partners.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 11:12 PM | Permalink

December 20, 2007

Free Google Flip Video Camcorder --No purchase necessary

OK, strike "no purchase necessary." Free Flip video camcorder: "big purchase necessary?"

Google gave big-time advertisers and SEMs (whose clients spend big) a Flip Video Ultra Series camcorder with recording time up to 30 min. and 1GB internal memory.

Search marketer Shimon Sandler recorded an Oscar-worthy short film (YouTubed) of his Google Video Ultra gift being unwrapped. You'll watch the film again and again, if only to get into the Xmas spirit of green envy that children of all ages feel during the Holiday Season.

Google Flip flopped with all the SEMs who only received Google 2GB USB memory cards instead of the Google Flip (with MSRP of $149.99!). The 2GoogleByte USB card was described by our friends at SERoundtable as more or less a lump of coal -- way inferior to last year's Google gift gadget: a sweet digital picture frame.

It would seem only the FTC approves of Google acquisitions these days.

Here at Search Engine Watch, we'll be providing the P.O. Box for Google Customer Returns and the address of the secret Google Gift Exchange location.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 6:46 PM | Permalink

November 20, 2007

Senate Subcommittee Cautions FTC on Google-DoubleClick Acquisition

U.S. Senators are urging the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to look with a critical eye on Google's planned acquisition of DoubleClick. According to ClickZ News, the heads of the Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights sent a letter yesterday to FTC Chairperson Deborah Platt Majoras urging her to examine the competition questions raised by the deal.

"While we have not reached any definitive conclusion regarding this issue, we urge that you only approve the merger if you determine that it will not cause any substantial lessening of competition with respect to Internet advertising," the Senators wrote.

The deal is also being looked at by the European Commission, which has until April 2 to render a decision. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission approved the deal earlier this month.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 9:22 AM | Permalink

November 1, 2007

GoogleClick Clears One Hurdle, Another Looms

Google's planned $3.1 billion acquisition of DoubleClick cleared another regulatory hurdle this week when the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) announced on Monday that it would not intervene in Googleâ€™s plans, according to ClickZ News.

The deal is still working its way through Congressional and FTC approval in the U.S., though experts expect approval of the deal to come soon. Google is still facing anti-competitive troubles in Europe.

The Brussels-based European Commission is currently weighing anti-competitive concerns that may arise from the transaction. A verdict is due November 13. The FTC can approve the deal irrespective of the EU verdict, but Google and DoubleClick cannot complete the deal unless both EU and FTC approve it.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 1:05 PM | Permalink

October 11, 2007

Google Buys Social Messaging Vendor Jaiku, Where Is This Leading?

Google has purchased a social instant messaging company, Jaiku, though how it is planning on using it is being kept secretitive, according to reports.

The company in essence provides the technology for creating social portals and networking applications. Where this will lead will be interesting to watch.

The Google blog describes the acquisition this way:

"Technology has made staying in touch with your friends and family both easier and harder: living a fast-paced, on-the-go lifestyle is easier (and a lot of fun), but it's more difficult to keep track of everyone when they're running around at warp speed. That's why we're excited to announce that we've acquired Jaiku, a company that's been hard at work developing useful and innovative applications for staying in touch with the people you care about most -- regardless of whether you're at a computer or on a mobile phone."

Posted by Frank Watson at 12:21 AM | Permalink

September 28, 2007

Google-DoubleClick Hearings Get Muddled

Google's potential acquisition of DoubleClick is now under scrutiny by a U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee, and based on yesterday's hearing, the closing of this deal could still be a long way off. Senators are hearing conflicting and confusing testimony from Google, Microsoft, privacy advocates, and free-market thinkers, according to ClickZ News. The subcommittee's decision may ultimately be determined by whether or not the companies are deemed competitors or complements.

Google's lawyers argued that DoubleClick is complementary, potentially delivering ads that Google sells. Opponents pointed out that the companies compete for the same ad dollars and share the same viewers, advertisers, publishers and data.

While Google's argument is not exactly accurate, given the fact that Google does deliver ads as well as sell them, the two companies are complementary, since they are delivering different kinds of ads, and serve different needs, for the most part. Besides its ad-serving business, DoubleClick also has other products for advertisers and publishers which Google does not offer.

Lots more coverage on Techmeme.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 11:26 AM | Permalink

July 19, 2007

Google-DoubleClick Deal Faces Congressional Scrutiny

Google execs will be called to defend the potential $3.1 billion acquisition of DoubleClick before both House and Senate Subcommittees, according to the New York Times. A subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee and a House Energy and Commerce Committee subcommittee on consumer protection are each planning to call a hearing to explore the antitrust and privacy issues.

The deal is already being looked at by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which has opened a preliminary antitrust investigation, which telecom analyst Scott Cleland expects to end badly for Google.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:14 AM | Permalink

July 16, 2007

Rediff Possible Google, Yahoo Buy To Imrove India Presence

The value of Rediff India Ltd. - which owns one of India's most popular consumer Internet portals - has been speculated as a possible acquisition by Google and Yahoo by numerous publications recently.

"Talk of the deal is emerging in the context of a general worldwide rebound in the Internet business, and India emerging as a hot story in the global economy with strong growth in both telephone penetration and the Internet in urban areas," the the Hindustan Times reported today.

While Barrons suggested the price of Rediff right now may be too high.

Posted by Frank Watson at 1:18 AM | Permalink

June 1, 2007

Google Acquires Feedburner

As expected, Google announced today that it has acquired Feedburner. The move brings feed distribution and management tools, as well as potential RSS distribution of AdWords ads.

Feedburner CEO Dick Costolo shares his thoughts on the Feedburner blog.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 2:28 PM | Permalink

May 23, 2007

Google Buying Feedburner?

Michael Arrington at TechCrunch says that he's confirmed that Google is acquiring Feedburner for close to $100 million. He's citing "a source close to the deal," so he could still be wrong, but if he's right, it's an all-cash deal, mostly upfront, with Feedburner's founders to stay on for a couple of years, at least.

The deal had been rumored to be in the works earlier this week, and ValleyWag said it had confirmed the deal as well.

The move gives Google a working feed-based ad network, but more importantly it keeps Google close to publishers, which it can then try to entice to take on more of its services. Feedburner also offers an impressive analytics package that can be incorporated into both Blogger and Google Analytics.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 1:33 PM | Permalink

April 29, 2007

Google and DoubleClick's Integration Hurdles

The New York Times is picking up on the fact that Google's potential DoubleClick acquisition gets more difficult when you consider Performics, DoubleClick's search and affiliate marketing agency. In The Pangs of Two Becoming One, reporter Dan Mitchell notes that the DoubleClick deal is facing antitrust challenges from Microsoft and IBM (oh, the irony), as well as worries from privacy advocates. But the biggest challenge may well be what Google should do with Performics.

There's just no way that a conflict of interest would not arise, or at least the appearance of a conflict, which would be just as bad for Google. Every time a Performics client's site showed up at the top of the SERPs, competitors would cry foul. And every time a Performics client's site did not show up first, it would be assumed that Google is being too tough with those clients, and so those clients would eventually leave to find an agency that actually helped them improve their rank.

As we noted last week, Google appears to already be moving toward the possibility of selling off the division.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 11:31 PM | Permalink

April 24, 2007

Google Buys Web Conferencing Software

Google tried something different the other day. Instead of buying the company - Google bought the software the company makes. They purchased Marratech's web conferencing software - used by Microsoft among others.

"Privately held and based in Sweden, Marratech develops downloadable conferencing software for Microsoft and Apple platforms, including chat, document-sharing, and online videoconferencing", according to the Motley Fool.

The Google blog distinguishes the fact that Google did not buy the company this time.

Posted by Frank Watson at 4:30 PM | Permalink

April 23, 2007

Google Changing Tune on Performics?

Since Google announced its intention to acquire DoubleClick, the industry has been buzzing with speculation about what would happen to Performics, the search and affiliate marketing agency side of DoubleClick.

In a FAQ issued when it announced the news last week, Google had said, "Performics is part of DoubleClick, and we are acquiring it as part of the transaction. We have no plans to dispose of it at this time."

A check of that same FAQ today reveals a different statement on Performics:

What will Google do with Performics? A. They have built a strong business that is valued by their clients, and we will be evaluating all strategic alternatives for this business. We are committed to continuing to meet the needs of Performics clients, and we expect no interruption in service during this transition. Google has many important agency, SEM, and other partner relationships, and we continue to value those relationships.

That's a bit more realistic, as the idea of Google owning a large SEM firm raises several issues around potential conflicts of interest. It looks like the document was updated on Friday afternoon.

Some people had been speculating that Google would simply shut Performics down, which doesn't seem to make sense, on the face of it. Performics' president Stuart Frankel has been busy debunking these rumors, issuing a statement to Pepperjam blog and others saying the company has no plans to shut down.

Let me make this absolutely clear. We are not dissolving or shutting down or significantly altering the Performics business. To the contrary, we continue to actively build our core affiliate and search business units. In fact, we are currently recruiting for 25 open positions across all areas of Performics.

His statement doesn't mention any potential sale of Performics by Google, which doesn't really say much, since the acquisition has not gone through yet, so there would be no way he could talk about those plans.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 1:12 PM | Permalink

April 16, 2007

Google/DoubleClick Deal Shakes Things Up

As has been widely reported, Google has announced plans to acquire DoubleClick for $3.1 billion. Details from Google can be found in the official press release, on the Official Google Blog, or in a five-page FAQ Google created.

Google also held a brief press conference on Friday, which paidContent has available as an MP3 for download.

Besides the display ad-serving side of DoubleClick, the deal also includes Performics, a search and affiliate marketing agency. There's also the idea of an ad exchange that DoubleClick recently announced, though there's nothing concrete there to speak of.

The deal is being lauded by some as a strategic imperative, while apparently already facing pressure on the anti-trust and privacy fronts.

A few more interesting viewpoints:

Google "closes the loop" with Doubleclick acquisition, Forrester's Charlene Li
Google Takes DoubleClick for $3.1 Billion, Forrester's Shar vanBoskirk
GoogleClick: Positioning for the Integrated Search and Display Exchange, JupiterResearch's David Card
Google Acquires Internet (May 2017), Google Blogoscoped
DoubleClickâ€™s Past, Google Blogoscoped
Google Acquired DoubleClick To Create A People-Driven Advertising Platform, Publishing 2.0
Doubleclick + Google: Looking at Some of the Doubleclick Patent Filings, SEO by the Sea
Google to own a SEM and SEO firm?!, Stephan Spencer

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 1:48 AM | Permalink

April 13, 2007

Google to Buy DoubleClick

$3.1 billion -- ClickZ has the story.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 8:09 PM | Permalink

March 16, 2007

Google Goes on Acquisition Binge

Google has been very busy on the acquisition front lately, it was revealed today. This afternoon, Marissa Mayer, VP of search products and user experience, announced the acquisition of Gapminder's Trendalyzer software. Trendalyzer is a data display technology for creating data maps and moving visual representations of data.

Mayer was short on detail of how the Trendalyzer application would be incorporated into Google's offerings, but it seems likely that it will be used to enhance the reporting capabilities of Google Analytics, or possibly as an addition to Google Apps. Trendalyzer's developers, previously based in Sweden, are part of the deal, and will join Google's team in Mountain View.

Later in the day, Google confirmed the long-rumored acquisition of in-game advertising technology provider Adscape Media.

In a post on the Google blog, new "dean of games" Bernie Stolar shared the news that he and his team will join Google to continue building the technology. An FAQ provides the reasoning for the move: "In-game advertising is an area where we believe Google could add a lot of value to users, advertisers and publishers. Adscape Media's technology and talented team are a great addition to Google's current advertising solutions for advertisers and publishers."

Google also sees great value in video game advertising, according to the FAQ:

"Over the past few years, the video game experience has become richer and more interactive. We think this rich environment is a perfect medium to deliver relevant, targeted advertising that ultimately benefits the user, the video game publisher and the advertiser."

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 10:11 PM | Permalink

February 16, 2007

Google Reportedly Buys In-Game Ad Company

Google's on-again, off-again deal to buy AdScape is apparently on again, according to Red Herring. Google will reportedly buy the in-game advertising technology provider for $23 million.

The company built a platform to sell dynamic, performance-based ads in video games, but has not announced game publishers that are using its system. Adscape launched in February 2006 with $3.2 million in funding from Atlantaâ€™s HIG Ventures.

A Wall Street Journal report puts the purchase price between $200 and $400 million, which is similar to what Microsoft reportedly paid when it acquired in-game ad provider Massive last year.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 PM | Permalink

December 18, 2006

Google Buys Swiss Mapping Company

Adding to the Google Maps and Earth, Endoxon was acquired by Google today. The Swiss-based mapping company offers Google a base of operations in Europe to further their mapping division.

Endoxon also provides the mapping for the Swiss local search engine, local.ch, that launched this year.

The addition also brings experienced personnel in the European market which will help Google develop their mapping of Europe.

Google announced the acquisition today.

Posted by Frank Watson at 10:46 AM | Permalink

November 15, 2006

Google Holding $200 Million In Escrow For Possible YouTube Copyright Cases

First Google was rumored to be keeping $500 million back from the YouTube sale to settle possible legal problems. Then Google CEO Eric Schmidt said they weren't. Today, turns out they are. Google holds back stock in YouTube deal from the Associated Press covers the details about keeping 12.5 percent of the stock swap for one year "to secure certain indemnification obligations." What Eric Schmidt Meant When He Said Google Wasn't Holding $500 Million From YouTube For Lawsuits: We're Holding $200 Million from TechDirt does a summary, plus gives you a funny headline about the entire thing.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 10:12 AM | Permalink

November 14, 2006

Google Officially Buys YouTube

Yesterday, Google announced that they have officially closed the deal on YouTube, acquiring them for "3,217,560 shares, and restricted stock units, options and a warrant exercisable for or convertible into an aggregate of 442,210 shares, of Google's Class A common stock." For more details, please check out the press release.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 10:21 AM | Permalink

November 10, 2006

Battelle "Grilled" Schmidt On Google Video, Google Docs & More

PC Magazine has an excellent write up on John Battelle's interview with Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google at the Web 2.0 conference named Google's Schmidt Grilled At Conference . John Battelle (which PC Mag spelled wrong), sat with Eric Schmidt for 30 minutes and asked him tough questions on YouTube, Google Docs & Spreadsheets and more. For example, Battelle asked, "So why did you buy YouTube? Was Google Video not doing well?" Battelle then noted that Google Docs and Spreadsheets were a Microsoft Office replacement, in which Schmidt replied, "We don't see it as a replacement of Office. The focus we have is not the focus they have." Battelle's response to that is the focus is that it is free. I wonder what the audience reaction was to this interview?

Postscript: Danny has coverage on the Web 2.0 conference from earlier this week here.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:23 AM | Permalink

November 9, 2006

Google, Microsoft & Yahoo Acquisitions Charted Via VentureBeat, Acquisition Mashup: Google-Microsoft-Yahoo from Shmula is a nice chart listing acquisitions by Google, Yahoo and Microsoft together. Click on any item to learn more about the purchase. I wish there was a way to reduce the font size, so that you could see more of the chart -- or perhaps a way to make it go vertical, rather than horizontal. Still, very cool. Related, see this analysis of some Google acquisitions by Bill over at SEO By The Sea, this list from Wikipedia for Google, this chart for Google from Tristan Louis and this expanded chart based on Tristan's that Philipp at Google Blogoscoped made.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 9:50 AM | Permalink

November 6, 2006

Google Wins Right To Buy YouTube In Antitrust Review

The Chicago Tribune reports that Google has won the right to buy YouTube after antitrust authorities reviewed the documents by the Federal Trade Commission. So now it is official, Google can go through with the acquisition of YouTube for $1.65 billion.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:49 AM | Permalink

November 2, 2006

Google To Partner With Clear Channel Communications?

Business Week's Steve Rosenbush thinks it is a good idea for Google to partner with Clear Channel Communications. The article explains that Google has been "adding "high profile" radio sales people in New York, Washington, Baltimore, Atlanta, and Chicago." And Google is known to be working towards embedding ads into radio with recent rumors that Google AdSense For Audio Coming Soon.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:53 AM | Permalink

October 31, 2006

Google Buys Wiki Maker, JotSpot

The Google Blog announced that they have bought JotSpot, a Wiki maker software solution. JotSpot updated their site to include an FAQ on Google, while Google has turned off signup for the service and locked it down to invite only. You can sign up for JotSpot at the www.jot.com, luckily, I am already signed up with them. Gary Price explains that the "financials are NOT being disclosed."

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 10:10 AM | Permalink

More Details On YouTube & Google Acquisition

Blog Maverick has some intimate details on the Google YouTube Deal from a "trusted anonymous author" in a message board. Here are some of the excerpts:

The first request was a simple one and that was an agreement to look the other way for the next 6 months or so while copyright infringement continues to flourish. The second request was to pile some lawsuits on competitors to slow them down and lock in Youtube's position. Infringement lawsuits will be served on Youtube and the new proud parent Google in the coming months. Google will respond with two paths: an expensive legal fight or a quick and easy settlement with most choosing the latter.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:26 AM | Permalink

October 11, 2006

MySpace Threatens YouTube After Google's Buyout

A Wall Street Journal article shows how the folks over at News Corp., the owners of MySpace.com, have threatened to cut "off the MySpace links to YouTube" because YouTube didn't respond to News Corp's email request to have an "opportunity to participate in the sale process." Google with YouTube and News Corp. with MySpace are to meet this week in LA to "discuss new ways of working together." The Wall Street Journal explains that News Corp. is threatened by the acquisition of YouTube by Google, making YouTube a much more powerful competitor to the MySpace property.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:44 AM | Permalink

October 6, 2006

Google Acquisition Of YouTube Rumor

Speculation about a potential acquisition of YouTube by Google is heating up. The Wall Street Journal reports and here's more coverage and buzz. Previously it was reported that Yahoo was in similar talks to buy the site. The rumor first appeared this morning on TechCrunch.

Posted by Greg Sterling at 12:13 PM | Permalink

September 14, 2006

Google: Expanding One Start-Up At A Time

The Washington Post has an interesting article looking at Google's acquisition strategy, in Google Goes to Market. The article shows how Google has spent a lot less than its competitors. In fact, it appears Google's goals behind their acquisitions differ greatly from Yahoo and eBay. The article describes that Google tends to buy companies that are early in the stages of development, and then when they acquire them, Google "has done little to highlight them." It is rare for Google to tell the public why they bought a certain company. It is also not like Google wants to buy software, they tend to want to by the brains behind the software and then build it internally.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:21 AM | Permalink

August 16, 2006

More than Organizing Photos? Google Acquires Neven Vision

Adrian Graham, Picasa's Product Manager, made a post Tuesday morning on the Official Google Blog titled A better way to organize photos? in which he announced that the team at Neven Vision has now joined Google. His post tells us that Neven Vision's software will make it easier for people to find and organize their photos. But, is there more to the purchase? Looking around some blogs that discussed the acquisition holds hints to possibily more.

I first read about this acquisition over on the Google Operating System Blog, in Object Recognition Is The Future Of Google, where I learned that the facial recognition software developed by Neven Vision will run on the types of microprocessors found in mobile phones.

It sounded like more might be happening than just putting pictures in order, so I tried to see if I could find any clues involving the intellectual property behind the company, with a trademark search and a patent search on their name. I came up with nothing. No patents assigned to Neven Vision, and no trademark in that name. At the time, their site was still working. A visit now yields the following message:

Thank you for your interest. Neven Vision was recently acquired by Google Inc. and Neven Vision product information is no longer available on this site. Click here to learn more.

But the site was up most of the day, and it did provide some helpful information. A search at the patent office on Hartmut Neven, one of the board members of Neven Vision, showed patents assigned to Nevengineering, Inc. A page on their site also listed a number of patents that they had been granted, and the numbers from those matched others that I found from the patent office. The oldest was originally filed back in 1996, and was followed by a number of others. The company it was originally assigned to was Eyematic Interfaces, Inc., but the patent had been reassigned to Nevenengineering in March of 2004. It seems that at some point in 2003, Eyematic Interfaces, Inc., transformed into Nevenengineering, Inc., with a focus that may have been more aimed at mobile technology.

I made a list of the patents I could find and some of the details about them in Google Acquires Neven Vision: Adding Object and Facial Recognition Mobile Technology.

While I was digging through the patents, a discussion started up at Google Blogoscoped on the purchase, and the news spread to GigaOm in Google Buys Photo Recognition Company, which both mention previous attempts by Google to purchase Riya, another recognition software company.

My friend Loren, over at Search Engine Journal, draws some other conclusions from other pages found on the Neven Vision site in Google, Neven Vision & Image Recognition. Loren ties together information from my patent post, what Liz Gannes at wrote at GigaOM, and from a number of other sources into a thoughtful analysis of what the acquisition may mean for Google in the future. And it's more than just organizing photos in Picassa.

Robin Good wrote a post on his blog at the end of July which shows an approach one image recognition company is taking in Visual Similarity Search Engine Finds Images According To Your Specs. What might we see from Google?

There are a lot of possibilities that become available with software that can recognize faces and objects. It will be interesting to see how Google might use some of the intellectual property and the expertise that they acquired with the folks from Neven Vision joining them. One of the newest patent applications published from Neven Vision, Image-based search engine for mobile phones with camera, lists some possibilities:

Image Based Searches
Optical Character Recognition with Language Translation
Mobile Advertising
Print-to-Internet
Payment System (using barcodes and labels)
Learning Tool for Children
Treasure Hunt Games
Virtual Annotation

Another, Image base inquiry system for search engines for mobile telephones with integrated camera, adds even more:

City and Museum Guides
Providing Product Information
Face Recognition
Product Part Replacement

Adding the ability to sort and search photos in Picassa is probably just the start of what we will see from this union.

Posted by Bill Slawski at 2:57 AM | Permalink

April 12, 2006

Google Buys Dulance; To Open Russian Research Center

Sergei Burkov, Founder & CEO of Dulance will run Google's development center in Russia. This was first reported by TechWorld yesterday and brought to my attention by Googlist this morning.

I asked Sergei if Dulance was acquired by Google, and he forwarded me to Google's PR department which just confirmed the acquisition.

To provide some context to the acquisition, Google's shopping comparison engine, Froogle, originally started out as a crawler but switched to taking data feeds fairly early on. Because the service is completely free, Froogle probably has around 50,000 data feeds (no confirmation), although the quality of those feeds isn't always that great.

For comparison, many of the leading shopping comparison engines (by traffic) only have 5,000 - 10,000 data feeds, so I've argued for a while that these comparison engines are not truly comprehensive and therefore don't always provide a valuable user experience. In fact, some of the leading shopping comparison engines rely on Google AdSense ads to supplement search results.

Dulance was the first of a new breed of shopping search engine which was based on crawling technology. Today there are a number of these engines inclduding Pronto, FatLens, and ShopWiki.

When I've had time to digest the news and do more research, I'll update you with how Google might use Dulance. In the meantime, here's the official Google press release:

Monday April 10th 2006 – Moscow: Google announced today that it is to open a research and development centre in Russia later this year as part of its ongoing investment in Europe.

The centre will be based in Moscow and run by Sergei Burkov Ph.D. Dr. Burkov is a former research physicist who has worked at both Cornell and the University of Wisconsin. In addition he co-founded three companies, Bilbo Innovations (computer pedals, distributed through Fry's Electronics), Invincible Data Systems (acquired by VASCO Data Security) and Dulance.

Google plans to use Russia’s phenomenal engineering talent to help develop great new products both for the Russian market and globally. According to the Russian Software Developers Association (RUSSOFT) Russia has the third highest number of scientists and engineers per head of any country in the world. Google also hopes to establish long-term partnerships leading with Russian institutes and universities.

Alan Eustace, Senior Vice President Engineering and Research at Google said: "It’s great to have Sergei on board. Technology is at the heart of everything we do at Google - we’re looking forward to working with our new Moscow team to develop great products for Russian users”.

Google's Russian R&D centre is the latest addition to a growing number of global engineering offices, which include the UK, Israel, Norway, Tokyo, Japan, Zurich, Switzerland, India and America (New York, Santa Monica, California, Kirkland, Washington and Mountain View).

Posted by Brian Smith at 12:27 PM | Permalink

Google Buys Dulance; To Open Russian Research Center

Sergei Burkov, Founder & CEO of Dulance will run Google's development center in Russia. This was first reported by TechWorld yesterday and brought to my attention by Googlist this morning.

I asked Sergei if Dulance was acquired by Google, and he forwarded me to Google's PR department which just confirmed the acquisition.

Dulance was the first of a new breed of shopping search engine which was based on crawling technology. Today there are a number of these engines inclduding Pronto, FatLens, and ShopWiki.

When I've had time to digest the news and do more research, I'll update you with how Google might use Dulance. In the meantime, here's the official Google press release:

Monday April 10th 2006 – Moscow: Google announced today that it is to open a research and development centre in Russia later this year as part of its ongoing investment in Europe.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 12:27 PM | Permalink

Google Buys Dulance; To Open Russian Research Center

Sergei Burkov, Founder & CEO of Dulance will run Google's development center in Russia. This was first reported by TechWorld yesterday and brought to my attention by Googlist this morning.

I asked Sergei if Dulance was acquired by Google, and he forwarded me to Google's PR department which just confirmed the acquisition.

Dulance was the first of a new breed of shopping search engine which was based on crawling technology. Today there are a number of these engines inclduding Pronto, FatLens, and ShopWiki.

When I've had time to digest the news and do more research, I'll update you with how Google might use Dulance. In the meantime, here's the official Google press release:

Monday April 10th 2006 – Moscow: Google announced today that it is to open a research and development centre in Russia later this year as part of its ongoing investment in Europe.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 12:27 PM | Permalink

Google Buys Dulance; To Open Russian Research Center

Sergei Burkov, Founder & CEO of Dulance will run Google's development center in Russia. This was first reported by TechWorld yesterday and brought to my attention by Googlist this morning.

I asked Sergei if Dulance was acquired by Google, and he forwarded me to Google's PR department which just confirmed the acquisition.

Dulance was the first of a new breed of shopping search engine which was based on crawling technology. Today there are a number of these engines inclduding Pronto, FatLens, and ShopWiki.

When I've had time to digest the news and do more research, I'll update you with how Google might use Dulance. In the meantime, here's the official Google press release:

Monday April 10th 2006 – Moscow: Google announced today that it is to open a research and development centre in Russia later this year as part of its ongoing investment in Europe.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 12:27 PM | Permalink

March 29, 2006

Google Reaches Definitive Agreement To Buy 5% Stake In AOL

Reuters reports that Google has finally reached an agreement with AOL to buy a 5% stake in the company. You can view the update here that says, in part; "On March 24, 2006, the parties signed definitive agreements governing this $1 billion investment in AOL and Google expects that the investment will close in the second quarter of 2006." So Google needs to hand over $1 billion in cash to AOL to acquire a 5% equity interest in AOL.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 4:09 PM | Permalink

Google Reaches Definitive Agreement To Buy 5% Stake In AOL

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 4:09 PM | Permalink

Google Reaches Definitive Agreement To Buy 5% Stake In AOL

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 4:09 PM | Permalink

Google Reaches Definitive Agreement To Buy 5% Stake In AOL

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 4:09 PM | Permalink

March 9, 2006

Google To Buy Writely, A Browser Based Word Processor? Om Malik has heard rumors that Google may be buying Writely, a company that can enable you to "write a document in a browser, much like you write on Microsoft Word." Postscript: Google just announced they bought them, more information here.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:21 AM | Permalink

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 9:21 AM | Permalink

February 15, 2006

Google Acquires Blog Tracking Software, Measure Map

Google announced that they have acquired Measure Map, a blog tracking software product. This product "helps you understand what people do at your blog, and what influence you are having on the world." I haven't tried the product, but reportedly, it is easy to set up and gives you information that you want to see, quickly. Some of the information includes number of visitors, number of links to your blog, number of comments and number of blog entries views out of the ones posted.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:50 AM | Permalink

Google Acquires Blog Tracking Software, Measure Map

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 9:50 AM | Permalink

Google Acquires Blog Tracking Software, Measure Map

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 9:50 AM | Permalink

Google Acquires Blog Tracking Software, Measure Map

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 9:50 AM | Permalink

February 5, 2006

Google and Others Invest in Wireless Servies Company

Om Malik reports that Google, Skype, and others have invested in FON, a wireless services startup.

FON describes itself this way: FON is a Global Community of people who share WiFi. Share your WiFi broadband access at home/work and enjoy WiFi all over the world! FON, small cost, great benefit!

People who use FON are called Foneros and according to their blog: "...the service was launched just 90 days ago and we already have over 3,000 registered Foneros. While that number may seem small, 3,000 registered Foneros puts us at 10% of our 2006 objective in only 3 months… FON can now count Google, Skype, Sequoia Capital, and Index Ventures as investors and backers."

Om has described it in the past as, "Skype+Boingo+Open Source" but only in a WiFi context.

Om's friend and also a friend of all of us here at SEW Blog, Glenn Fleishman*, shared some less than positive comments about what FON is trying to do on OM's blog in the past. Tonight, Glenn has posted some new thoughts about today's announcement.

He believes that FON faces some major issues with ISP's and also thinks that municipal Wi-Fi networks like the one Google wants to offer in San Francisco and other muninicipal models would "distort the Fon model."

Btw, Glenn "strongly" believes that, "Google will not become a Wi-Fi provider beyond San Francisco and Mountain View (at least not on any large scale) because their interest is high-margin businesses like advertising not low-margin ones like service provision."

Late last week we posted comments from a Google representive about the company's WI-FI desires, plans in SF, and how they might fund such a project using highly targeted localized advertising delivered to users of the municipal WI-FI network like the one Google hopes to build in San Francisco.

From the artice: By keeping track of which access point a user is connected to, Google will be able to locate users within two blocks for the purposes of sending them advertising for businesses nearby, [Google's Christoper] Sacca said. Google would sell ads by postal code, potentially uncovering a new class of advertisers among small local businesses that don't buy space in other media today, he said. Google's localized ads would be a more efficient way for them to reach likely customers, according to Sacca..."Highly targeted ads may be able to pay for these things," Sacca said.

My question, would Google considering offer those who run FON routers the chance to make extra cash via localized Google advertising that's delivered to users who are are receiving WiFi bandwidth from a FON router? Would this provide extra incentive for different categories of providers as described by Glenn (free operators, for-fee operators, and non-operators) to offer FON services?

* On a completely unrelated note, Glenn Fleishman is also the developer and provider of the wonderful ISBN.nu book comparison pricing database.

Posted by Gary Price at 11:03 PM | Permalink

Google and Others Invest in Wireless Servies Company

Om Malik reports that Google, Skype, and others have invested in FON, a wireless services startup.

FON describes itself this way: FON is a Global Community of people who share WiFi. Share your WiFi broadband access at home/work and enjoy WiFi all over the world! FON, small cost, great benefit!

Om has described it in the past as, "Skype+Boingo+Open Source" but only in a WiFi context.

* On a completely unrelated note, Glenn Fleishman is also the developer and provider of the wonderful ISBN.nu book comparison pricing database.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 11:03 PM | Permalink

Google and Others Invest in Wireless Servies Company

Om Malik reports that Google, Skype, and others have invested in FON, a wireless services startup.

FON describes itself this way: FON is a Global Community of people who share WiFi. Share your WiFi broadband access at home/work and enjoy WiFi all over the world! FON, small cost, great benefit!

Om has described it in the past as, "Skype+Boingo+Open Source" but only in a WiFi context.

* On a completely unrelated note, Glenn Fleishman is also the developer and provider of the wonderful ISBN.nu book comparison pricing database.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 11:03 PM | Permalink

Google and Others Invest in Wireless Servies Company

Om Malik reports that Google, Skype, and others have invested in FON, a wireless services startup.

FON describes itself this way: FON is a Global Community of people who share WiFi. Share your WiFi broadband access at home/work and enjoy WiFi all over the world! FON, small cost, great benefit!

Om has described it in the past as, "Skype+Boingo+Open Source" but only in a WiFi context.

* On a completely unrelated note, Glenn Fleishman is also the developer and provider of the wonderful ISBN.nu book comparison pricing database.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 11:03 PM | Permalink

January 17, 2006

Google Buys Radio Ad Firm; AdWords Headed To Radio Distribution

Wow. Google is to acquire dMarc Broadcasting, a company that puts ads into radio stations, paying up to $1.1 billion for it. Google plans to distribute AdWords via radio this way. Says Google VP of advertising sales Tim Armstrong in the press release (and here at Google):

"Google is committed to exploring new ways to extend targeted, measurable advertising to other forms of media," said Tim Armstrong, vice president of Advertising Sales, Google. "We anticipate that this acquisition will bring new ad dollars and accountability to radio by combining Google's expansive network of advertisers with dMarc's talented team and innovative radio advertising technology. We look forward to working together to continue to grow and improve the ecosystem of the radio industry."

Google is to pay $102 million up front as part of the deal, with a maximum amount of $1.136 billion possibly paid over the next three years. The acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of 2006.

Guess anyone still entertaining the notion of Google as a technology company versus a media company can put that to bed. Putting ads on radio isn't really a technology business. Nor is it central to that mission of organizing the world's information. Neither is putting ads into print or slapping them up all over the web, either

I wrote earlier that Google's philosophy page needed some changes to keep up with the times. In particular, that famous mission that currently reads:

Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.

Really ought to say:

Google's mission is to fund and organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.

Because the ads to little to organize anything. At best, they can be argued to help fund information (along with a lot of crud -- I just saw an AdSense ad promising "AdSense Ready Content: Over 300 premade websites ready. Immediate download! 1000's of pages."

Postscript from Gary: Here are a few facts about dMarc that I've learned from perusing their web site:

Although I wouldn't doubt that Google goes out one of these days a purchases radio stations, dMarc doesn't own any radio stations they provide the advertising and programming software.
They also have their own advertising network that you can learn about their network here. This page explains how the dMarc tech can be used to target an audience.
dMarc has more than 4600 radio stations using it's "digital trafficking" (ad scheduling) and "studio automation" software.
dMarc used to be in the onli