Newspapers Around The World Oppose Yahoo-Google Ad Deal
By Robert Andrews
The World Association of Newspapers (WAN) this morning asked the US Department of Justice, the European Commission and the Competition Bureau of Canada to block the deal under which Google (NSDQ: GOOG) will supply some advertising to Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO). Paris-based WAN, an umbrella representing 18,000 newspapers, argues it will lessen ad revenue the pair provide to newspaper and other sites.
President Gavin O’Reilly: “Competition forces each company to offer the best possible terms and helps ensure that newspapers earn a fair market return for the right to display ads and search boxes on their sites. The proposed advertising deal between Google and Yahoo would seriously weaken that competition, resulting in less revenues and higher prices for our members. More in extended entry...
“WAN is also concerned that this deal would give Google unwarranted market power over important segments of online advertising. Advertisers will increasingly migrate to Google since they will see diminishing price advantages to advertising through Yahoo. Google has refused to allow Yahoo to show Google ads on the websites of new publishing partners it acquires after the deal is finalized - in other words, Google has imposed a condition that impedes one of Yahoo’s last remaining opportunities to compete with Google. What this means for newspapers is that Yahoo’s bids for their ad business will almost certainly be lower than they are today.”
Though the deal only covers north America, WAN says European newspapers would be directly harmed, too. The companies submitted the proposal to a voluntary 100-day review when they brokered the deal to avert Microsoft’s (NSDQ: MSFT) Yahoo takeover in June. But they say the project will kick in next month regardless of the anti-trust outcome, which they expect to be positive. WAN has previously clashed with Google over its refusal to adopt the ACAP standard for crawling news content. The newspapers have already bought in to Yahoo in a significant way, of course; a consortium of almost 200 US papers runs Yahoo ads. [paidContent.org]
Yahoo Proposes a Third Ownership Option
Yahoo investor Eric Jackson has proposed a “third option” for control of the portal, citing fears other shareholders would vote to retain current leadership solely because an alternative slate of directorsproposed by controversial investor Carl Icahn rankled.
“Neither side running for election can guarantee that Microsoft will ever come back to the table with an offer for Yahoo. We must accept that reality and select a board to do the best job in the current situation (even as distasteful as the situation is),” Jackson said in a statement. ’I want Icahn to win outright, but I am putting forward this third option because I fear several large shareholders will worry about the operational abilities of Icahn and his team.”
The alternative proposal would retain some of the board including CEO Jerry Yang but oust chairman Roy Bostock, director Eric Hippeau and the Yahoo compensation committee. “I frankly hold Mr. Bostock more responsible for the break-down in talks with Microsoft. He supposedly has much more experience in such deal-making matters than Yang and I find it puzzling that he would choose not to attend that fateful meeting on May 3rd in Seattle, which led to Microsoft finally pulling the plug on their offer.”
Jackson is best known for lashing out at former Yahoo CEO Terry Semel at the portal’s 2007 annual meeting and organizing a sizable minority vote against his re-election. He claims to represent 146 investors holding 3.2 million shares. [CommsDay]
Yahoo Ends Microsoft Talks, Inks Google Deal
By Jason Ankeny
Yahoo said Thursday that its merger discussions with Microsoft have officially concluded, hours later announcing a non-exclusive digital advertising agreement with rival web services giant Google.
According to Yahoo, months of negotiations with Microsoft culminated in a June 8 meeting where the software Goliath stated unequivocally it is not interested in acquiring all of Yahoo, even at the $47.5 million price it had proposed last month, and instead wished only to purchase its search division. The Yahoo board balked at the deal, determining it would strip the company of a critical component of its strategic future.
Yahoo will now pin its hopes on Google, its biggest rival. The deal, which Yahoo promises will enhance its position in the converging search and display marketplace, enables Yahoo to run ads supplied by Google alongside its own search results and on some of its web properties in the U.S. and Canada. The non-exclusive agreement allows Yahoo the latitude to display paid search results from Google, other third parties and its own Panama marketplace.
Many onlookers suggest the Yahoo/Google deal is little more than a band-aid solution, however--it does little to address challenges like market share erosion and diminishing web traffic growth. Moreover, the Yahoo executive exodus continues: On Thursday, The New York Times reported the resignations of Jeff Weiner, executive vice president of Yahoo's network division, and Usama Fayyad, chief data officer and executive vice president of research and strategic data solutions.
Nor is it clear how the Yahoo/Google partnership will impact activist investor Carl Icahn's continuing crusade to oust Yahoo's board as part of his effort to sell the company to Microsoft. Shareholders will vote on Icahn's slate of board nominees during the firm's annual meeting on August 1. And of course, a deal between the two largest search engines promises to generate antitrust concerns--the smart money suggests the Department of Justice will give the deal a thorough regulatory review. [FierceMobileContent]
Microsoft Proposes Alternative Yahoo Deal
Two weeks after abandoning takeover talks with web services giant Yahoo, Microsoft is returning to the bargaining table, this time proposing the firms collaborate on web advertising ... but hinting a full-fledged acquisition may still be in the cards. Microsoft Sunday said it is "continuing to explore and pursue its alternatives to improve and expand its online services and advertising business …
Microsoft is not proposing to make a new bid to acquire all of Yahoo at this time, but reserves the right to reconsider that alternative depending on future developments and discussions that may take place with Yahoo or discussions with shareholders of Yahoo or Microsoft or with other third parties."
The renewed talks underline the cloudy future facing both companies. Amid rumors rival Google is poised to ink its own deal with Yahoo, Microsoft is faced with the possibility of falling even further behind in the race to dominate digital search and advertising. In an email to employees Sunday afternoon, Microsoft president of platforms and services Kevin Johnson writes, "Regardless of the outcome of any new discussions, it is important that we continue to move forward to strengthen our online services business.
The fact is that we are not where we want to be in this business yet and we've been in this position longer than we'd all like." Outlining an agenda designed to exploit Microsoft's strengths on the desktop and in mobile, Johnson says the firm must "innovate and disrupt in search," "win in display" ads and "reinvent portal and social media experiences."
At the same time, Yahoo is under attack from activist investor Carl Icahn, who is threatening a proxy battle for the firm if a deal with Microsoft is not signed. In a letter to Yahoo chairman Roy Bostock dated May 15, Icahn claims that Yahoo's board "acted irrationally and lost the faith of shareholders" by turning down Microsoft's $33 per share takeover offer.
"It is unconscionable that you have not allowed your shareholders to choose to accept an offer that represented a 72 percent premium over Yahoo's closing price of $19.18 on the day before the initial Microsoft offer," Icahn continues. "I and many of your shareholders strongly believe that a combination between Yahoo and Microsoft would form a dynamic company and more importantly would be a force strong enough to compete with Google on the Internet." [FierceMobileContent]
'MicroHoo': Moving From Marriage to Cohabitation?
By David Mitchell, SVP IT research at Ovum
When the Microsoft-Yahoo deal initially fell through, largely because Microsoft's Steve Balmer was unwilling to pay the high price that Yahoo's CEO Jerry Yang wanted ($33 versus $37 per share was the difference), Microsoft publicly walked away to pursue other strategic options. There was no "let's still be friends" statement from either party. Just when everyone hoped that the public debate over the potential marriage between Microsoft-Yahoo was over, the weekend saw two new threads of the long-running soap opera emerge.
“First was the news that a potential shotgun wedding could be on the cards. Carl Icahn, the well-known shareholder activist, has quietly built up a stake of around 4% in Yahoo. The intent is well telegraphed - to put pressure on the Yahoo board to reconsider its rejection of the Microsoft offer, either through direct pressure on the existing management or through forcing board changes within Yahoo. Microsoft would have been able to mount a similar proxy campaign but it chose not to, for fear of the damage to the company, its customers and its staff that would have been inflicted. A proxy battle, waged through a third party, has exactly the same risks. Of course, there is also the risk that Microsoft may simply be unwilling to return to the negotiating table or re-instate even its lowest offer - never mind the final one.”
“The weekend also brought news that Microsoft had raised the possibility of an alternative relationship with Yahoo - short of an acquisition. While it is not clear what the suggestion is, it is likely to involve a relationship or partnership around search-related advertising, in a similar style to the 'poison pill' type deal that Yahoo was suggesting with Google. There are several possible options, from a simple licensing deal at one end of the spectrum, through to a joint venture. Given the difficulties in pursuing an acquisition, it would be reasonable to assume that a low-integration option in any revised transaction is likely.”
“It's clear that both Microsoft and Yahoo see the rationale for some form of get together - in a word, Google. For Microsoft, Google poses a threat to both its online business and its traditional business application space - with Google dominating the former and now progressively making inroads into the latter, and with Google Gear breaking the online/offline dichotomy. For Yahoo, there is a need to increase share in the online advertising market and to diversify, bringing a range of application alternatives similar to Google Applications. Without the diversification Yahoo risks being progressively marginalised in the market - and accelerated research and development is needed in the short term.”
“When the Microsoft-Yahoo deal was first announced we saw strategic rationale in it for both parties, and that has not changed. Partnership may be easier to implement than acquisition, but is still not easy. Neither party can afford to put all of their bets on this transaction. Microsoft still needs to accelerate into the Asian online markets and to consider acquisitions in that part of the world. Yahoo still needs to increase the range of applications that it offers, either through organic development, through acquisition or through partnerships and co-development.”
“Marginalisation is a risk for them both.” /PR
Will Marketers Get Frugal With Google?
It depends on who you ask.
The latest data from comScore showed that clicks on ads placed on Google didn't change much from January 2007 to January 2008. Clicks were actually down 12% from the last three months of 2007.
Clicks on Yahoo! ads also fell 3% from the fourth quarter, but it was Google that got all the unwelcome attention, including a stock price dip to about $450, down from about $740 in November.
What is going on? BusinessWeek quoted UBS as saying in a research note that "unless there's a problem with comScore's data, the most likely scenario is that 'advertisers are simply bidding on and buying fewer keywords.'"
eMarketer senior analyst David Hallerman also said that an economic slowdown would likely mean less online shopping for consumers, and therefore fewer clicks on the ads that direct them to retail sites.
But Mr. Hallerman says that marketers should not overreact to the comScore data. "You typically need multiple data sources to get a clear picture," he said. "Even if the comScore data is perfectly accurate, one month is not enough to view a trend."
Read more - eMarketer
Yahoo Debuts Mobile Content Management Solution
Web services giant Yahoo announced the launch of Yahoo onePlace, a mobile content management solution promising to instantly organize personalized information and content into a single location.
With the introduction of Yahoo! onePlace, we are announcing the next essential component to our mobile product line up,” said Marco Boerries, executive vice president, Connected Life, Yahoo!. “Yahoo! onePlace is where users will be able to find what matters to them the most, no matter where their interests, passions and information come from. Yahoo! onePlace will provide mobile users with a rich and dynamic content experience.”
Yahoo! onePlace™ will bring together a consumer’s interests, passions and important information into a single location – creating a rich and highly personalized experience. Everything is instantly organized, dynamically kept current, and served to them the way they want. So now, the content they consume and the way they consume it will be hyper-customized to their specific preferences and tastes.
According to Yahoo, onePlace bookmarks instantly link to news feeds, websites, videos, images, emails, search queries and related online content, with all information automatically updated as well as categorized and tagged to enable subscribers to more intuitively find and combine content in ways that make the most sense to them.
Yahoo cites the example of a user planning a vacation to Paris, who could create a mobile "Paris" collection linking to weather conditions, city guides, restaurant reviews, hotel reservations, walking maps, Edith Piaf songs, English-French dictionaries, winery recommendations, and so forth. Consumers may configure onePlace for hundreds of different topics.
Yahoo! onePlace is designed to include the following features, which will allow consumers to:
- Centralized and open content management - Centralize and manage all the content they care about, from anywhere on the Internet, accessible from a single location and arranged to best meet their preferences. The product is also designed to allow consumers to link to any favorite content they've already personalized on the Yahoo! network (e.g., MyYahoo!, flickr, del.icio.us), or at other popular websites (e.g., Digg, Last.FM, reddit, Yelp).
- Personalized views - Enjoy their content based on their specific needs:
- Collections - Group content in a way that makes sense. For example, create a collection related to an upcoming trip, or of favorite 80s bands.
- Categories - Organize content according to commonly-used subjects (e.g., celebrities, local businesses, sports), making it easy to access and retrieve.
- Pulse - Stream updates relevant to users' content, such as flight status changes, new songs by a favorite music artist, or a restaurant review.
- Favorites - Surface the content a consumer uses most frequently.
- Dynamic updates - See previews for selected sources that are kept fresh throughout the day - giving users a single location for a view of what's going on across their world.
- Mobile RSS reader - Use a mobile RSS reader integrated into Yahoo! onePlace - providing a simple way to read and subscribe to their favorite feeds.
- Smart organization - Create a rich experience around a specific topic by grouping whatever content they find most useful.
Yahoo! onePlace is expected to launch, along with Yahoo! oneConnect™, in Q2 2008, joining Yahoo!’s award-winning mobile product portfolio, which includes Yahoo! Go 3.0, Yahoo!’s new mobile homepage and Yahoo! oneSearch™. After its release, Yahoo! onePlace is expected to become available across hundreds of devices and mobile browsers around the world. /PR
For more information on Yahoo! onePlace, go to http://mobile.yahoo.com/oneplace.
Search Ad Trends Favor Consolidation
How to keep the biggest from getting bigger?
Yahoo!'s official snub of Microsoft's initial offer means that an acquisition might take longer or take a different direction altogether. But Yahoo! remains fundamentally attractive for its position in the search market.
There is no escaping that Google dominates search. The company's portion of US search advertising spending grew among the top three search engines from the fourth quarter of 2006 to the fourth quarter of 2007, according to Efficient Frontier.
Google's rivals have not been sitting still. The launch of Yahoo!'s Panama platform increased the company's ROI by 39.4% during the period studied, according to Efficient Frontier.
Efficient Frontier also said that MSN lead the major search engines in average click-through rate and ROI. The research company credited this to MSN's smaller number of advertisers, making for less competition and commensurately stronger performance for advertisers.
Read more - eMarketer
Mobile Ads Take Baby Steps to Reach Consumers
By Nicola Leske
Consumers may be receptive to advertisements on their mobile phones in exchange for free calls or content, but operators remain cautious about intruding on the intimate space of a customer's cell phone.
For now, consumers do not have to fear that walking past a supermarket will trigger messages to their mobiles, advertising special offers inside, or have banners burst onto the tiny screen while they check their emails on the go.
"Advertising is not just a straight move from the PC to the mobile phone," Marco Boerries, head of Yahoo's mobile business, said in a keynote speech at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
"We're trying to invent mobile advertising."
Read more - Yahoo! News
T-Mobile Jilts Google for Yahoo oneSearch
Hours after announcing it would reject Microsoft's unsolicited $44.6 billion buyout bid on grounds the offer "substantially undervalues" its worth, web services giant Yahoo significantly improved its position in the mobile web market, displacing rival Google as T-Mobile's exclusive mobile search services provider in the operator's northern and central European markets.
Announcing the deal Tuesday at Mobile World Congress here in Barcelona, T-Mobile said it will introduce Yahoo oneSearch at the end of March, with the two companies planning to develop a differentiated oneSearch experience optimized specifically for T-Mobile subscribers for future release. They also plan to collaborate on introducing T-Mobile incarnations of Yahoo services like Flickr, Yahoo Messenger, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo Weather and Yahoo Finance.
According to T-Mobile group products and innovation officer Christopher Schläffer, the T-Mobile/Yahoo partnership will emphasize what he called "federated search," a model emphasizing contextual responses culled from multiple sources, not just the web. "We're moving away from the web to something new," Schläffer said during Tuesday's press conference. 
"Federated search is about direct answers--mobile screens are too small to deal with links, so we're going to push the answers to the screen, [drawing on a] federation of content sources including content from the device portal, local search, and people and community search."
Marco Boerries, executive vice president of Yahoo's Connected Life unit, added "We're focused on giving answers, not web links. We try to find the user context and deliver the result. We're integrated at the operator level, so we understand location, and depending on the keyword and context, we can prepare just the right result. It's search designed with the mobile web in mind."
T-Mobile also announced a series of related items Tuesday, including an expansion of its web'n'walk mobile web portal to include services like YouTube, MySpace, Flickr and Bebo, as well as a European mobile IM service slated to offer access to Windows Live Messenger, ICQ, AOL Instant Messenger and Yahoo Messenger, which T-Mobile CEO Hamid Akhavan said collectively represent roughly 90 percent of the overall IM market.
T-Mobile also said it plans to introduce Apple's iPhone to the Austrian market later this year, with a handset based on Google's fledgling Android OS scheduled to launch sometime in the fourth quarter. No doubt in response to EU Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding's recent vow to take action in response to concerns Europeans are paying too much for mobile data services outside their native country, T-Mobile also said it will introduce pan-European data roaming plans. Asked by a member of the audience whether the flat data pricing will generate a loss of revenue, Akhavan smiled and said "I hope not." [FierceMobileContent]
Why Online Display Ads Still Matter
Less pizazz, but steady income.
Most of the focus on the potential Microsoft-Yahoo! deal has centered on search marketing. But Yahoo! is an attractive target partly because it commands high rates for ads placed on its own site.
Nearly one-fifth of 2007 online display ad spending went to Yahoo!, according to an analysis of data from Nielsen Online, JPMorgan and other sources published in February's OMMA Magazine.
Yahoo!'s $12.65 CPM was three times greater than Microsoft's MSN, 50% greater than News Corp.'s Myspace.com, and about four times greater than AOL.
"However, some of Yahoo's weakness is also reflected in these results, since even with the large number of impressions, the revenue per thousand (RPM) was lower than more targeted Web publishers such as Weather Channel, MSNBC and ESPN," said David Hallerman, senior analyst at eMarketer.
Read more - eMarketer
Yahoo Rejects Microsoft Buyout Offer as Undervalued
by Glenn Chapman
SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Yahoo's board of directors on Monday rejected Microsoft's buyout offer, saying the 44.6-billion-dollar bid is too low and not in the interest of shareholders of the veteran Internet company."After careful evaluation, the board believes that Microsoft's proposal substantially undervalues Yahoo including our global brand, large worldwide audience, significant recent investments in advertising platforms and future growth prospects, free cash flow and earnings potential, as well as our substantial unconsolidated investments," Yahoo said in a statement.
As a result, the board "concluded that the proposal is not in the best interests of Yahoo and our stockholders."
Microsoft told AFP on Monday it "has no comment at this time."
Read more - Yahoo! News
T-Mobile Signs Yahoo! To Put Ads On web’n’walk
T-mobile has announced a partnership with Yahoo! that will see the first graphic ads displayed on T-mobile’s web’n’walk service. The ads will be served and sold by Yahoo!
Web’n'walk, which was the UK’s first service to offer people unlimited access to the whole internet on a mobile phone, is set to carry a variety of innovative graphical ads exclusively sold and served by internet giant Yahoo!.
Mobile advertising is unique in allowing consumers the ability to interact and respond directly to the messages that advertisers try to deliver to them when they are out of the office or home. T-Mobile and Yahoo! intend to roll out the first mobile advertisements on web’n'walk in the first half of 2008.
Phil Chapman, Director of Marketing at T-Mobile, said: “Mobile advertising is a key area of development for T-Mobile in 2008 and this partnership with Yahoo! shows our commitment to making this strategy succeed. With conventional mobile marketing tools limiting the levels of interaction, banner advertising through the Internet on your mobile creates many opportunities for potential advertisers to adopt innovative marketing campaigns.”
“This partnership with T-Mobile demonstrates Yahoo!’s continued focus on mobile and extending our leadership in graphical advertising across multiple platforms,” said Geraldine Wilson, VP of Connected Life, Yahoo! Europe.
“Advertisers are fast recognising the value of mobile advertising as a core part of their digital campaigns, and we are excited to work with T-Mobile to create superior experiences that deliver great value to advertisers and mobile users alike.”
According to a report produced by JupiterResearch entitled ‘Mobile Advertising in Europe’: “Mobile Internet advertising seems to raise the highest of hopes. Of Marketers having used or planning to use mobile marketing, 64% planned to use banner advertising on mobile portals, and 68% planned to use banner ads on off-portal mobile Internet pages during the next 12 months. These marketers also consider the mobile Internet to be the most service enabling future growth of mobile advertising revenue (58%).” [MobiAdNews]
Would Microsoft-Yahoo! Mean More Competition?
On the surface, Microsoft's $44 billion offer to acquire Yahoo! seems to simplify the US search market share race.The combined firm would be second in online ad revenues to No.1 Google, and ahead of AOL. In 2007, Google rang up nearly $6 billion, while Yahoo! had about $3.4 billion and MSN had $1.4 billion net revenues.
The top four portals totaled $12.2 billion in online ad revenue for the year. eMarketer's projections put this at more than half of the $21.4 billion market total.
For search ads in particular, Microsoft-Yahoo! would have roughly 18% market share of the search-based ad market, compared with 75% for Google, according to Sandeep Aggarwal, analyst at Oppenheimer & Co., as cited in a Wired article.
eMarketer put search advertising spending at more than $8.6 billion in 2007.
Read more - eMarketer
Inside The $44.6 Billion Microsoft offering for Yahoo
Microsoft announced Friday a $44.6 billion cash and stock offer to acquire beleaguered Yahoo, a deal that would consolidate the web's largest portal with MSN, the fifth-largest.
Microsoft's $31 per-share bid represents a 62 percent premium over Yahoo's closing stock price on Thursday -- if ratified, the acquisition would herald the biggest Internet deal since the Time Warner/AOL merger, and create a viable threat to the growing web search and advertising supremacy of mutual rival Google.
"Microsoft's consistent belief has been that the combination of Microsoft and Yahoo clearly represents the best way to deliver maximum value to our respective shareholders, as well as create a more efficient and competitive company that would provide greater value and service to our customers," writes Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer in a statement to the Yahoo board.
In late 2006 and early 2007, we jointly explored a broad range of ways in which our two companies might work together. These discussions were based on a vision that the online businesses of Microsoft and Yahoo should be aligned in some way to create a more effective competitor in the online marketplace. We discussed a number of alternatives ranging from commercial partnerships to a merger proposal, which you rejected. While a commercial partnership may have made sense at one time, Microsoft believes that the only alternative now is the combination of Microsoft and Yahoo that we are proposing."
Ballmer's argument for corporate synergy hinges on four areas: Scale economics, expanded R&D capacity, operational efficiencies and emerging user experiences, citing Microsoft and Yahoo's "combined ability to focus engineering resources that drive innovation in emerging scenarios such as video, mobile services, online commerce, social media, and social platforms."
Microsoft said it will offer retention packages to Yahoo engineers and other vital employees throughout the organization. Assuming the merger passes regulatory muster--a major question at this point -- Microsoft said it expects that the deal would be completed in the second half of 2008.
From a mobile software perspective, a Microsoft/Yahoo merger would seem to portend an integrated, applications-rich Windows Mobile platform that would position the so-called "Microhoo" far in front of Google. Given that Microsoft and Yahoo announced interoperability between their IM services almost two years ago, the combined company would also boast a decisive edge in messaging, an area where Google is only beginning to build momentum.
Also noteworthy: In early January, Yahoo opened its fledgling Mobile Developer Platform to third-party applications, promising developers the tools necessary to write code only once for instant publication across the device ecosystem. At the same time, Yahoo also embraced a widget-based mobile UI--weeks later, Microsoft said it will distribute mobile user experience solutions developer Zumobi's Zooming User Interface and mobile widget platform via Windows Mobile-based devices, suggesting a more user-friendly Windows platform could be on its way.
Related articles:
As an Alternative to Microsoft's Bid, Yahoo to Consider Google Alliance.
Microsoft Offers US$44.6 Billion for Yahoo
As an Alternative to Microsoft's Bid, Yahoo to Consider Google Alliance
Following a $44.6 billion takeover proposal by Microsoft, Yahoo Inc would consider a business alliance with Google Inc., a source familiar with Yahoo's strategy said on Sunday.
Yahoo management is considering revisiting talks it held with Google several months ago on an alliance as an alternative to Microsoft's bid, which, at $31 a share, Yahoo management believes undervalues the company, the source said.
Jeffrey Lindsay, an analyst from Sanford C. Bernstein, wrote in a research note that "the Microsoft bid of $31 is very astute" because it puts pressure on Yahoo management to take actions that could unlock the underlying value of Yahoo assets, which he estimates are worth upward of $39-$45 a share.
Yahoo's efforts to find an alternative bidder could simply be a measure to pressure Microsoft to boost its bid, which valued Yahoo at $44.6 billion when first announced on Friday.
Few natural bidders exist beside Google that could engage in a bidding war, and Google would be unlikely to win approval from antitrust regulators, some Wall Street analysts said on Friday.
Related articles:
Yahoo may consider Google alliance, source says
Microsoft Offers US$44.6 Billion for Yahoo
Microsoft Offers US$44.6 Billion for Yahoo
Microsoft Corp. announced Friday a $44.6 billion cash and stock offer to acquire beleaguered Yahoo, a deal that would consolidate the web's largest portal with MSN, the fifth-largest.
Microsoft's $31 per-share bid represents a 62 percent premium over Yahoo's closing stock price on Thursday. If ratified, the acquisition would herald the biggest Internet deal since the Time Warner/AOL merger, and create a viable threat to the growing web search and advertising supremacy of mutual rival Google.
"Microsoft's consistent belief has been that the combination of Microsoft and Yahoo clearly represents the best way to deliver maximum value to our respective shareholders, as well as create a more efficient and competitive company that would provide greater value and service to our customers," writes Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer in a statement to the Yahoo board.
"In late 2006 and early 2007, we jointly explored a broad range of ways in which our two companies might work together. These discussions were based on a vision that the online businesses of Microsoft and Yahoo should be aligned in some way to create a more effective competitor in the online marketplace. We discussed a number of alternatives ranging from commercial partnerships to a merger proposal, which you rejected. While a commercial partnership may have made sense at one time, Microsoft believes that the only alternative now is the combination of Microsoft and Yahoo that we are proposing," he added.
Ballmer's argument for corporate synergy hinges on four areas: Scale economics, expanded R&D capacity, operational efficiencies and emerging user experiences, citing Microsoft and Yahoo's "combined ability to focus engineering resources that drive innovation in emerging scenarios such as video, mobile services, online commerce, social media, and social platforms."
Microsoft said it will offer retention packages to Yahoo engineers and other vital employees throughout the organization. Assuming the merger passes regulatory muster -- a major question at this point -- Microsoft said it expects that the deal would be completed in the second half of 2008. [FierceMobileContent]
AT&T, Yahoo Ink Advertising Deal
AT&T and web services giant Yahoo announced a multi-year deal that promises to create new ad-based revenue opportunities via mobile handsets and PCs. The companies said the agreement calls for revenue sharing, but did not disclose detailed financial terms. Per terms of the deal, Yahoo will provide multi-platform search and display advertising, including access to co-branded versions of Yahoo's mobile Web properties. AT&T's Yellowpages.com will also supplant Yahoo Local Search as the primary local search experience for AT&T wireless and broadband customers.
In effect, Yahoo will exchange annual access fees derived from AT&T for advertising revenue, following on the heels of similar deals with Vodafone and Rogers Wireless. In a conference call Wednesday--during which time Yahoo confirmed reports it will layoff 1,000 employees--Yahoo CFO Blake Jorgenson said agreements like the AT&T deal will cut $150 million to $200 million a year from Yahoo's revenue, although the restructured contract calls for AT&T to make a onetime payment this year of $300 million to $400 million.
“Our goal is to connect our customers to their worlds, wherever they live and work,” said Randall Stephenson, chairman and CEO, AT&T Inc. “This new agreement with Yahoo! reinforces AT&T’s leadership in wireless and broadband and enables both companies to bring their respective strengths to the table to benefit AT&T’s customers. It also reflects the benefits of establishing strong alliances in business today.”
”Since 2001, the AT&T Yahoo! alliance has been a benchmark in both the telecommunications and Internet industries,” said Jerry Yang, co-founder and CEO, Yahoo! Inc. “The combination of Yahoo!’s innovative mobile and PC applications and advertising solutions, with AT&T’s leadership in customer connectivity, mobility and robust networks once again raises the bar for the entire industry and further establishes Yahoo! as a starting point for consumers on the Internet.”
The agreement calls for revenue sharing, but detailed financial terms were not disclosed. [FierceMobileContent/FierceWireless]
Related articles:
T-Mobile UK Inks Advertising Deal With Yahoo
Yahoo, America Movil Ink Mobile Search Deal
Yahoo! Rolls Out Global Mobile Display Advertising Platform
T-Mobile UK Inks Advertising Deal With Yahoo
T-Mobile UK announced the launch of its first graphical advertising service, inking a deal with Yahoo to deliver targeted messages to subscribers via the operator's Web'n'walk mobile web platform. Yahoo will exclusively sell and serve advertising for T-Mobile, and will roll out the first Web'n'walk interactive banner ads in the first half of 2008. Yahoo signed a similar agreement with T-Mobile rival Vodafone in late 2006.
"With conventional mobile marketing tools limiting the levels of interaction, banner advertising through the Internet on your mobile creates many opportunities for potential advertisers to adopt innovative marketing campaigns," said T-Mobile director of marketing Phil Chapman in a prepared statement.
Mobile advertising is revolutionising the market by allowing advertisers to deliver more targeted messaging to consumers on their mobiles when on the move. As pioneers of the Internet on your mobile, T-Mobile and Yahoo! will combine their expertise in the industry and knowledge of consumer habits, to enable advertisers to offer consumers targeted graphical ads when using the web’n’walk service.
Mobile advertising is unique in allowing consumers the ability to interact and respond directly to the messages that advertisers try to deliver to them, when they are out of the office or home. T-Mobile and Yahoo! intend to roll out the first mobile advertisements on web’n’walk in the first half of 2008.
Chapman said: “Mobile advertising is a key area of development for T-Mobile in 2008 and this partnership with Yahoo! shows our commitment to making this strategy succeed. With conventional mobile marketing tools limiting the levels of interaction, banner advertising through the Internet on your mobile creates many opportunities for potential advertisers to adopt innovative marketing campaigns. We regard Yahoo! as a leader in display advertising, and with its deep understanding of the mobile space and the potential that mobile advertising can offer clients, we’re glad they are on board as our partners.”
"This partnership with T-Mobile demonstrates Yahoo!'s continued focus on mobile and extending our leadership in graphical advertising across multiple platforms," said Geraldine Wilson, VP of Connected Life, Yahoo! Europe. "Advertisers are fast recognising the value of mobile advertising as a core part of their digital campaigns, and we are excited to work with T-Mobile to create superior experiences that deliver great value to advertisers and mobile users alike." [FierceWireless]
2008: Yahoo Revamps Mobile Web Strategy
Yahoo announced the beta launch of its revamped flagship mobile offering Yahoo Go 3.0, promising an upgraded and feature-rich user interface, start-page personalization and customizable access to web brands and services via third-party widgets.
Among the new wrinkles is a mobile web gateway Home widget featuring e-mail access, calendar and Flickr photo applications as well as a customizable collection of mobile snippets -- i.e., personalized mobile web previews -- spotlighting news, weather and related content. The Home widget also enables direct access to Yahoo oneSearch. In the days ahead, the Yahoo Widget Gallery will introduce widgets from eBay, MySpace and MTV.
In addition, the Yahoo Go 3.0 beta client launches a new mobile advertising initiative, which the Internet giant calls the first in a series mobile monetization tools and services planned over the course of 2008. Yahoo presently offers mobile display advertising in 21 countries, with search marketing live in the U.S., the U.K. and Japan.
Yahoo's Mobile Developer Platform also introduced a one-stop solution enabling third-party developers to create mobile-optimized 3.0 widgets, providing tools to write code once and publish their content across the device ecosystem. Yahoo! Go 3.0 takes mobile services to the next level with an upgraded and feature-rich user interface, a truly personalized start page and customizable access to consumers’ favorite Internet brands and services through easy-to-use third-party widgets.
"Yahoo's ultimate goal is to bring the best possible Internet experience to the billions of mobile consumers around the globe," said Yahoo Connected Life executive vice president Marco Boerries in a prepared statement. "We believe that to succeed on such a scale, the best strategy is to open up our mobile platform in order to tap the innovation and talent of the world's developers and publishers. Together, we'll be able to offer the wide selection of content and services that will allow individual consumers to choose their own ideal mobile Internet experiences."
Consumers in the U.S. can download Yahoo! Go 3.0 (http://go.yahoo.com/) on more than 30 mobile devices from major manufacturers worldwide and use it on most wireless networks. Over the coming months, Yahoo! Go 3.0 is expected to be available on hundreds of devices worldwide, accessible by hundreds of millions of users.
We are providing users with increased control over their experiences as well as increased choice in getting the content and services they want while on the go,” said Marco Boerries, executive vice president, Connected Life, Yahoo!. “With our innovative mobile services like Yahoo! Go 3.0 and deep partnerships across the industry, we are focused on making the promise of the mobile Internet a reality for consumers around the world.”
For the first time ever, consumers can enjoy their favorite Internet content and services from leading mobile publishers within a single client on their phone. Yahoo! Go 3.0 features display advertising from Yahoo!’s major global advertisers. Consumers can interact with these ads through functionality such as clicking to call the advertiser directly or to learn more information about the advertiser's offer. [FierceBroadbandContent/FierceWireless]
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