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First Quarter Sees Almost Three Million New High-Speed Internet Subscribers - According to Leichtman Research Group, Inc., the nineteen largest cable and telephone providers in the US, representing about 94% of the market, acquired over 2.9 million net additional high-speed Internet subscribers in the first quarter of 2007. The top broadband providers now account for 56.2 million subscribers, with cable companies having over 30.7 million broadband subscribers, and telephone companies having over 25.4 million subscribers.    

GoogleVersal Search - The End of Outsourced SEO? - The coming rollout of Google’s universal search model sparks a debate about the future of the search engine optimization and search marketing industry.

Search Marketers Seed Social Networks - Nearly half of search marketers placed content on social networking Web sites in February 2007, according to the “iProspect Search Marketer Social Networking Survey” sponsored by iProspect and conducted by JupiterResearch. Respondents said they had “proactively placed content” on MySpace, YouTube, LinkedIn and other social networking sites. Marketers said they placed content on these sites to drive traffic, create brand awareness, sell directly and influence purchasing.

Localized Search: A Threat to SEM? - IT LOOKS LIKE 2007 WILL be the year when localized and personalized search really take off. Analysts are forecasting billions of dollars in ad spending growth and new players like BooRah and Oodle are striking lucrative deals and securing funding. From Google to Microsoft to AOL, the big players are also concentrating on developing local and personal search capabilities, pointing to the fact that this is not simply a trend. But what are the implications for online marketers?

Microsoft Means Macro Change For Ad World - Microsoft’s move represents a double-threat as aQuantive is both a huge advertising services company via its Avenue A / Razorfish unit (representing roughly two-thirds of aQuantive’s revenues), as well as a formidable ad-serving business via Atlas. Both represent important strategic diversifications for the software giant, which has tried and failed to gain a dominant position in the online industry beyond the browser market.

MSFT-aQuan: No Conflict Of Interest; Still Opposing Google-DoubleClick - AdAge has a short interview with Joe Doran, general manager of Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions, on the Microsoft-aQuantive deal…he addresses the potential conflict of interest in the deal: “We do know people could say there’s a conflict of interest between us. We want to make sure all ad agencies understand we don’t want that to become a reality. We’ll operate Avenue A/Razorfish at arms length, make sure they have ability to drive the value for marketers and advertisers and remain independent.”

MSFT-aQuan: The Indies Left Standing: Valueclick; Viewpoint; Tacoda, Eyeblaster and Others - After the Microsoft’s announced deal to buy aQuantive, stories about who else is left to be consolidated, and the main contender is ValueClick, the judgment on company’s real value is mixed. Some analysts think ValueClick is still on its own because buyers are most interested in gaining ad serving technology, which only makes up a small portion of the company’s sales. Still analysts also think potential ValueClick buyers exist. Global Crown Capital analyst Martin Pyykkonen estimated the company could fetch as much as $4 billion.

HomeAway Acquires VacationRentals.com - HomeAway Inc., an Austin, Texas-based operator of an online vacation rentals website, has acquired VacationRentals.com, a Chicago-based provider of online vacation rental listings. No financial terms were disclosed.

Amazon.com Buys Digital Photography Review Site Dpreview - An interesting acquisition by Amazon.com: it acquired London-based digital camera review site Dpreview.com. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The site, which I’ve used in the past before buying digital cameras, has in-depth reviews of the new cameras in the market, buyers guides and forums.

TechTarget Buys TechnologyGuide For $15 Million; Ajaxian For $1 Million - These two came from tech media firm TechTarget‘s recent IPO filings (its IPO is on tap this week): earlier this year it bought two sites: 1.) Towards the end of April, it bought TechnologyGuide.com (TGC) for about $15 million. TGC develops technology product review, price comparison and user-review sites in area such as laptops, PDAs, and tablet PCs. 2.) Also in February, it bought Ajaxian for about $1 million in cash. Ajaxian is a provider of a website and two events on info and support for the community of developers for Ajax, the scripting language.

Sony Online Buys Online Gaming Studio Sigil - Sony Online Entertainment, the online gaming arm of Sony, has bought Carlsbad, CA-based Sigil Games Online. Through the deal, SOE now owns “Vanguard: Saga of Heroes”, Sigil’s flagship MMO game. In May 2006, SOE acquired the title’s rights and the two companies agreed to co-publish Vanguard. The MMO launched in late January of this year and has sold nearly 200K retail and digital units worldwide, the companies said. Some more details here.

Coupons, Inc. Buys Newspaper Chains’ Online Coupon Venture - Further consolidating its position in the printable online coupon business, Coupons, Inc. has acquired Boodle.com and its parent Consumer Networks LLC from Gannett Co., Tribune Co. and Copley Press.

LBi Buys Creative Digital - LBI International, a global digital agency, said it acquired interactive agency Creative Digital Group. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The Atlanta, GA.-based Creative Digital, which specializes in rich media campaigns has sales of $10 million and 35 employees, according to the company.

AOL Buys Adtech AG for Advertising.com - A day after its deal for mobile ad specialist Third Screen Media, AOL bought a controlling stake in Adtech AG, the German display ad serving company. The acquisition expands Advertising.com’s global ad-serving network.

24/7 Real Media Announces Agreement to Be Acquired by WPP for $11.75 per Share - WPP Group will pay 24/7 Real Media, Inc. shareholders $11.75 for each 24/7 Real Media share, in a transaction valued at approximately $649 million, net of cash acquired; The offer price represents a premium of 30% over the average closing price of 24/7 Real Media’s shares for the last sixty (60) trading days; The transaction has received the unanimous approval of the Boards of Directors of the two companies.  

Microsoft to Pay About $6 Billion To Buy Ad Company aQuantive - Microsoft Corp. agreed to acquire aQuantive Inc. in an-cash deal valued at about $6 billion, as the software giant became the latest to buy an online advertising agency. Microsoft’s $66.50-a-share offer provides a whopping 85% premium to aQuantive’s closing price Thursday and prices the parent of AvenueA/Razorfish at double its valuation in recent years. The Redmond, Wash., company defended the price tag, characterizing it as a transformational deal that lets the software giant grab a foothold in the fast-growing market for online advertising.

IAB, comScore, Nielsen Meet Amidst Secrecy - Discussion centers on measurement accuracy and possible third-party audits, following an open letter from IAB CEO Randall Rothenberg. All will be revealed next week, the IAB maintains.    

ABI: Internet to TV Hardware a $1.5 Billion Biz By 2012 - ABI Research reported that video to TV solutions will deliver $1.5 billion in service revenue by 2012, led by video game consoles, “because of their close proximity to the TV, large hard drives, and the high penetration of online services among gamers.”

comScore Finds An Older Podcast Audience - Perhaps reflecting the educational and business themes of top podcasts, a comScore study of the iTunes podcasting audience found that 35- to-54-year-olds represent half of the downloaders–running against the conventional wisdom that only young, tech-savvy consumers download and listen to podcasts.

Hitwise Offers Customized Competitive Intelligence - Hitwise, the leading online competitive intelligence service, has launched Hitwise Dashboards, a new interactive report that enables marketers to review customized competitive intelligence information from a single page in the Hitwise interface.

Watching TV, But Not on TV - Would you pay to watch YouTube clips on your TV? Over a quarter of males ages 13 to 34 watch video on devices other than TVs, according to E-Poll’s “Multi-Platform Viewing of Video Content” report. The study of viewing habits in 2007 found three-quarters of consumers ages 13 and older viewed video content on PCs. Over half of those who watched video content online said they were interested in transferring it to their television sets. Only 13% of television viewers said they had already made such a transfer. Half didn’t know it was possible.

Word-of-Mouth in B2B - Word-of-mouth (WOM) gets executives to buy, according to the “Driving Word of Mouth Advocacy Among Business Executives: The Experiential Marketing Connection” report, conducted by the Keller Fay Group and sponsored by Jack Morton Worldwide. Half of those surveyed said that WOM would both get them to buy and pass along the word themselves.

AOL’s Global Expansion Underway - AOL’s global expansion is well underway. The Time Warner Company in the 18 months will launch a retooled Web portal in 14 countries, many of them new. AOL India, Austria and the Netherlands have launched this year, while revamped versions in Germany, France and UK are set to follow. The move is interesting, considering that the Times Warner unit sold its AOL Europe business last year.As part of the retooled site, AOL is adding AOL Instant Messenger to its email service, a la Gmail and Google Talk, and social media services.

Google’s Radical Change - Make no mistake, yesterday’s unveiling of Google Universal Search was a massive announcement for the Mountain View, Calif. Web giant. Information Week says the bigness of the press event was underscored by the appearance of so many senior company officials, including Elliot Schrage, vice president of global communications and public affairs; and Craig Silverstein, Google’s technology director (and first employee). Search executives were mixed on the news, but just about everyone agrees this is a monumental change. Greg Sterling, principal of consultancy Sterling Market Intelligence, says the move encourages users to spend more time in the “Google Universe,” and will more than likely result in greater usage of underutilized products like Video and Book Search.

FTC Reviews Online Food Marketing Practices - Online kiddie communities are a feeding ground for big food companies, says new research from the Center for Digital Democracy and American University. Sites like Neopets.com require that users log on frequently to take care of their virtual pet, which includes feeding them ice cream, candy and baked goods. The CDD/AU report details how low-nutrient foods are marketed to kids on the Web. Apparently, snack food brands are everywhere, from chat rooms to social networks. The authors suggest that the meteoric rise in such marketing contributes to childhood obesity and other health problems by encouraging kids to eat high-sugar, high-fat foods.

Google Thumbnails Fair Use - A federal appeals court this week boosted Google’s image search, vacating a trial court’s injunction banning the search giant from displaying thumbnails of pictures owned by adult entertainment company Perfect 10. The 9th Circuit found that the display of the thumbnails is probably a permissible fair use of the material, even if the images themselves are pirated. “We conclude that Perfect 10 is unlikely to be able to overcome Google’s fair use defense and, accordingly, we vacate the preliminary injunction,” the judges wrote.

Warner Music Sues Social Network Imeem For Music Copyright Infringement - Warner Music, fresh from $110 million settlement with Bertelsmann on the former Napster, has sued Imeem, a music-based social networking site, for infringing the copyright of its artists. In a suit filed at the U.S. District Court, Central District of California, Warner accused Imeem of building a base of 16 million users on illegal free music…Imeem allows users ot upload MP3 files and share playlists with each other.   

Blinkx To Raise $50 Million in AIM IPO; Valued At $225 Million - Blinkx, the video search engine and technology company, which was spun-off Autonomy last month in a complex transaction, has filed additional details: it has set a price range of between 35 pence and 45 pence a share, which would raise 25 million pounds ($50 million) and give it a market cap of 114 million pounds ($225 million) at the mid point of the range. It will start trading on May 22.   

Gossip Blogs Impact News Consumption Patterns - The Hitwise US News and Media Report, on recent trends in online news consumption, shows that the share of traffic leaving the News and Media industry for Multimedia sites increased by 196 percent from April 2006 to March 2007. The report says that search engines are responsible for more News and Media category website traffic than ever before. Print News websites received 29.7 percent more traffic from Google in March 2007 than in March 2006. Broadcast Media sites received 35.9 percent more traffic from Google in the same time period . News Aggregators and portals were also significant sources of traffic for News and Media websites.

Scripps Adds Social Media To DIY Network, Fine Living - Scripps Networks is launching additional social media initiatives this week for both DIY Network (www.diynetwork.com) and Fine Living (www.fineliving.com) following HGTV’s success with its “Rate My Space” social networking portal. “Rate My Space,” which encourages users to share decorating advice, generated 10 million page views in just six weeks–or 10 times more page views than expected–after its Feb. 20 debut. Scripps Networks expects that eventually about half its online content will be user-generated.

Where Are All the Online Shoppers Going? - From 2006 to 2011, the number of new online shoppers will increase at a 3% compound annual growth rate, compared with an 8% rate between 2003 and 2005. Obviously, growth rates for online shoppers are flattening out. That’s a problem for Internet-only merchants, and an opportunity for multi-channel store retailers.

Google Spyware Looks To Capture Video Game Behavior - Ars Technica delves deep into a new Google patent for a video game advertising system that would embed a piece code into a PC or console to monitors user behavior in video games. The obvious intent is to serve highly targeted advertising. Everything from a conversation in “World of Warcraft” to a scan of saved game files would be fair game, sent back to a central server to be spliced into contextual and behaviorally targeted ads.

MySpace Needs Subpoenas For Sex Offender Plan - After a statement from the Connecticut State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal that thousands of sexual offenders are lurking on MySpace, the News Corp. social network urgently responded that it’s prepared to work with state attorneys general to stamp out the problem. The company said its cooperation hinges on whether state officials follow the law and subpoena the names. The attorney generals want the MySpace info to be able to lock up sex offenders.

Amazon Takes Bite Out Of Apple - Online retailer Amazon is poised to take on Apple’s iTunes store with a new music download service that will sell tracks without the digital rights management restrictions that aim to prevent people from copying the music they’ve purchased. The new service is set to launch with tracks from EMI, with a roster of musicians including the Rolling Stones and Coldplay, and independent labels.

Google Revamps Its Search System - Google Inc. said today that it was unifying its approach to Web search, combining its established service with specialized searches ranging from news and images to videos. Speaking to reporters at the company’s headquarters, Marissa Mayer, Google’s vice president for search and user experience, said the new Universal Search would be available starting today and improved over time.

Ford Commits To 12-Month Schedule With Specific Media - In a somewhat unusual move for ad networks, online display advertising is getting its own upfront season. Ford’s Lincoln and Mercury brands have placed 12-month commitments with behavioral targeting ad network Specific Media.   

Broadband To Launch Vindico Ad Serving Platform - Broadband Enterprises on Thursday plans to officially launch its own ad serving platform, named Vindico, and will host an online video ad upfront to present advertisers with five original Web-exclusive series.

Is Google Ogling In-Game Ads? - Google’s recent patent filing in the U.S. and Europe to covertly monitor the way users play online games, following its $23 million acquisition of AdScape Media in February, has bloggers and industry sources alike seeing a pair of logically synchronized steps toward the company entering the lucrative business of in-game advertising.

NBC Digital Goes Social With MyNBC - Watch out, MySpace–because NBC Digital this fall plans to launch its own social network, which will be integrated into NBC.com to encourage visitor interaction and involvement.

IM Site Meebo Adds Rooms, Rich Media Ad Options - Instant messaging Web site meebo yesterday launched meebo rooms, enabling a target millennial demo to share, chat and view media clips. The effort launches with a raft of content partners. Eidos, Sony and Blockbuster are test advertisers.

Internet Captures Half of Spare Time - Broadband users spend almost half their spare time in a typical weekday online, according to Media-Screen’s “Netpop|Play” report. A copy of the study provided to eMarketer stated that the average broadband user spent an hour and 40 minutes of her typical weekday spare time online. Over half of that time online was devoted to entertainment and communication. Josh Crandall of Media-Screen said that the point of the results was not that broadband users spend more time online, but that online marketing is still underused in proportion to that time.

Teens and Young Adults Spread the Word - Call them Gen Y or Millennials or just “people ages 13-24.” Whatever the name, this group spreads the word quickly on things it likes and enjoys user-generated content, according to the “State of the Media Democracy” report commissioned by Deloitte & Touche and conducted by Harrison Group. When members of the Millennial group found a worthy TV show or Web site, they told an average of 18 people, compared to only 10 people for all age groups. In fact, word-of-mouth was the main reason Millennials visited Web sites, followed by TV ads.

Copyright Light Amid Web Radio Doom - Copyright law has proved to be a real drag on Web users this year. First, the Googlization of YouTube put the stop (inadvertently) on certain video content, then Web radio was told to pay astronomically higher licensing and royalty fees to Big Music to retain the right to Webcast their music. The injustice exposed by the latter could force Congress into overhauling all copyright law–but there’s a ways to go yet.

The Specter Of Ad-Blocking Services - Do the legions of ad-haters out there understand that if they want free content on the Web, they have to deal with advertising? That said, there’s an entire industry full of intelligent folks who’ve devoted themselves to creating ad-blocking software. There is a new program developed by conceptual artist Steve Lambert that replaces display ads with contemporary artwork chosen by curators. During a demonstration, the banner and rectangle ads on the Fox News Web site were replaced with a bald eagle illustration.

US Retail E-Commerce: Entering the Multi-Channel Era - eMarketer estimates that US retail e-commerce sales (excluding travel) will reach $131 billion this year. As the online channel matures, from now to 2011, the annual average growth rate will slow to 17.5%, and increased spending by existing online buyers–rather than new buyers coming online–will be the driving factor.

Buying Into Digital: A Look at the Holding Companies - Digital is the future. On that point, industry executives agree. But how best to tackle this fundamental shift to creating communications to a digital world is a matter of debate, as the differing strategies of Omnicom, WPP, Publicis and Interpublic Group of Cos. attest. In the past 18 months, each has invested in digital companies to strengthen its offerings in creative and media, but the amounts of money spent and deal structures vary widely, as does each holding company’s use of acquired assets.

MySpace Sends Out For Videos - News Corp.’s MySpace has launched a new video section containing clips from media companies like The New York Times, Reuters, and Fox’s IGN Entertainment, the company said today. With the new initiative, material such as the Times’ “Vows” videos and episodes of National Geographic’s “The Dog Whisperer” will be available on branded news channels on MySpace video. Of course, with much of this material already available on the Web, the question arises why the media companies are willing to syndicate to News Corp.

Who Is Today’s Gamer? You Have No Idea - Can you guess who’s at the control of this video-game screen? If you said a teenager, you’re only 17% right. In fact, it could be a senior citizen or a young kid, a fan of global multiplayer fantasy games, or a sudoku fiend. Online gaming, in particular, attracts a varied crowd of players. While console play tends to have more limited ad opportunities, the possibilities in online gaming are endless.

Why Your Branded Widget Might Not Be Welcome on MySpace - The talk around MySpace and Photobucket highlights one of the great divides in the philosophy and business models of social networks: to be open or closed. Historically, MySpace has been an open environment, one in which users were responsible for designing and crafting their own profile pages, and an entire cottage industry cropped up around that environment. But as companies like YouTube and Photobucket gained page views and began making money off those services, MySpace started encouraging users to use its own video and photo tools. (At one time MySpace infamously tried to block YouTube videos.)

WPP Eyes Small, Mid-Sized Digital Deals - WPP Group Plc , the world’s No. 2 marketing services company, is eyeing small- to medium-sized acquisitions of digital advertising companies amid growing competition from the likes of Google Inc. “We will be making investments in the digital area,” WPP CEO Martin Sorrell told the Reuters Global Technology, Media and Telecoms Summit via video conference from London. “We would tend to focus on … let’s call it the small to medium sized-acquisitions, which is consistent with what we’ve been doing historically,”

Cisco Developing Social Network Tech Tools - Cisco Systems Inc. is developing offerings to help create social networking Web sites that let groups communicate, Chief Development Officer Charlie Giancarlo said on Tuesday. Cisco recently purchased Utah Street Networks, which owned the technology behind pioneering social network site tribe.net, and also bought Five Across, a company that provides software for building social networks on sites such as the National Hockey League’s NHL.com.

Sport, Internet to Drive Lagardere Growth - French media group Lagardere, the world’s largest consumer magazine publisher, is banking on the Internet and sport to drive its growth in coming years, its chief financial officer said on Tuesday.Lagardere plans small and mid-sized Internet acquisitions, targeting content-based Websites with high margin potential in countries where it already has strong positions, Dominique d’Hinnin told the Reuters Global Technology, Media and Telecoms Summit in Paris.

The Crowded, Crowded World of Social Networks - Since eMarketer published its first report on social network marketing, companies have latched with almost religious fervor onto the notion that consumers want to be socially connected online, whether on mass-appeal sites such as MySpace, on targeted niche sites and video sites, or on mobile phones — in fact, almost everywhere. As a result, eMarketer has increased its estimate of US ad spending on social networks to $900 million in 2007, up from the previous estimate of $865 million.    

Real Cities Rolls Into comScore’s Ad Top 50 - The Real Cities network broke into comScore Media Metrix’s top 50 ad rankings for the month of April, reaching 16% of the U.S. online population at number 36. Real Cities, which unites 130 local news sites into a national network, may have benefited from such hot April news-related topics as the pet food recall, which comScore Media Metrix reported also led FDA.gov to experience the Web’s largest traffic surge during the month–up 72% from March–and Nestle to rise 34%, largely due to its Purina brand.

Facebook, Friendster Offer Free Classifieds - Move over Craig. Facebook on Friday said it would add free classified ad-listings to its popular social networking site.

Orbitz’s Away.com Leverages Social Commerce with Ask & Answer - Away.com, a subsidiary of Orbitz Worldwide, has signed on as one of the first major sites to use Bazaarvoice’s new Ask & Answer service–bolstering purchase decisions by allowing users to post and respond to specific product and service questions right alongside standard product information.

Digital Future, Cautious Present for Ad Holding Firms - Advertising’s major agency holding companies are now firmly aligned with their global media-selling counterparts: The future is digital. And that’s going to mean big changes, just as it has for every other industry affected by this phenomenon. But some would say that Big Advertising is still several steps behind Big Media in addressing a shift that could have a comparatively greater affect on their business.

User Data Debate Persists Among Privacy Advocates - Reporting from the Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference in Montreal last week, the Times brings back an old issue that continues to hang over the ad industry: consumer privacy versus the collection of user information. Just last fall, the Center for Digital Democracy filed a fresh complaint with the FTC detailing how the combination of user profiling, data mining and targeted advertising threaten consumer privacy.

Murdoch’s Dow Jones Bid Reflects Online Potential - According to one measure used by financial analysts, Rupert Murdoch’s $5 billion takeover bid for Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones & Co. values the publisher higher than Google. Let’s explain that: The $60-per share offer represents 40 times DJC’s projected 2007 earnings, compared to the current price of Google’s shares, which values the search giant at about 32 times projected ‘07 earnings.

Why Americans Love Marketing To Themselves - The traditional media model isn’t just shifting, it’s collapsing. It’s a new world when consumers start taking the initiative to create marketing messages for companies whose products they like. However, brands are our culture, which means that when we take photos of ourselves with the products we love, as Cadillac asked its owners to do in a recent campaign, we do it with pride, and because we want to.

Web Distribution Is CBS’ Manifest Destiny - After trying and failing with an online video strategy requiring users to come to one destination to view content, CBS Corp. is shifting gears. As it was offline, CBS believes that distribution is the name of the game on the Web. Of course, so do broadcast competitors NBC, ABC and Fox. While NBC and Fox, through the NBC-U News Corp-Microsoft-Yahoo-etc. video partnership, may have already achieved the largest distribution (before releasing anything), CBS this week is set to extend its menu of video content to as many as 10 different Web sites, from Time Warner’s AOL to the online video startups Joost and Veoh.

A La Carte Paid Video Downloads Are A “Dead-End”: Report - A la carte paid video downloads, such as those offered at Apple’s iTunes and Amazon’s Unbox, will peak in 2007, generating $279 million in revenue, up from $98 million last year. Instead, ad-supported and subscription based models will drive the online video market, according to Forrester Research. Forrester’s survey showed that only 9 percent of online adults have ever paid to download a movie or TV show. And that tiny minority is primarily composed of “niche of media junkies” willing to spend heavily on such content; they do not represent mainstream consumers, according to the study.

Ask.com To Spend Close To $100 Million in Advertising This Year - Ask.com, still trying hard (they’ve launched an unscrutable billboard campaign in LA, and other cities), will spend about $100 million in total ad spend this year, IAC CEO Barry Diller disclosed at the Reuters Global Technology, Media and Telecoms Summit today. Ask.com held 5.2 percent of the U.S. Web search market in March, up 0.2 percentage points over February, according to Comscore.

The article below from Business Week is a good description of why there has been so much M&A activity recently:  

The Merger Frenzy Explained

This is how the market views media right now: It loves video assets when they’re in the hands of a well-regarded conglomerate like News Corp. (NWS) or Walt Disney (DIS). It likes companies with data that people will pay serious money for, like financial-information providers Thomson (TOC) and Reuters (RTRSY). It also likes players with a commanding presence in one media space and an Internet strategy that’s considered smart, like cable giant Comcast (CMCSA) and broadcaster CBS (CBS). It doesn’t like companies owning content and distribution perceived to be commoditized, like newspapers and radio. And when Wall Street hates a company that is admired in other quarters for its holdings, that company becomes deal bait.

Understanding all of that helps explain May’s flurry of big potential hookups. (In brief: News Corp.-Dow Jones (DJ), Microsoft (MSFT) merging all or some of its media operations with Yahoo!’s (YHOO), Thomson-Reuters, the speculation that Gannett (GCI) might or should pursue help-wanted giant Monster.com (MNST).) And understanding why, beyond simple earnings growth, the Street likes or dislikes a media company offers insights into the next deal or merger targets.

Considering the billions of dollars squandered in past deals that chased a mirage of synergy, it pains me to write the following sentence: The performances of News Corp. (stock up about 40% in the past two years) and Disney (up 34%) show that the markets like big, multi-platform combinations of content and distribution better than almost anything in media, especially when they’re paired with a new-media story (hello, MySpace (NWS)!) the Street prefers. That fact, and News Corp.’s $5 billion-plus in cash reserves, enabled Murdoch to offer a 66% premium for Dow Jones.

SO DID THIS: Dow Jones traffics in premium information—consider the nearly 1 million subscribers claimed by WSJ.com, The Wall Street Journal’s online arm, plus the Factiva database service. But Dow Jones’ stock isn’t being valued like that of data players Thomson and Reuters, both of which were up over 25% in the past two years even before merger talks were made public. Dow Jones, whose stock had gone sideways for years before Murdoch’s bid, is being treated like a newspaper company. If Dow Jones had had a couple of years of Reuters and Thomson-esque gains—and, um, decent profits—it would have been much harder for Murdoch to offer such a premium. And while Reuters’ and Thomson’s gains are fine, they don’t match those of another key data player. The McGraw-Hill Companies (MHP), which owns such data assets as Standard & Poor’s (MHP) and consumer ratings service J.D. Power & Associates (MHP)(as well as BusinessWeek (MHP)), has outperformed the stocks of even News Corp. and Disney in the past two years. Don’t think this escaped the notice of Thomson’s and Reuters’ management.

Yahoo, another underperformer, has familiar ills—management missteps, coupled with the misfortune of facing direct comparisons with Google (GOOG). That is making its stock lag behind where it should be. (As a dominant online player, Yahoo at least qualifies for being liked, if not to the lofty status of being loved, by Wall Street.) Hence the talks with Microsoft, the theory being that a combo or partnership would allow them to compete with Google. Similarly, those suggesting that Gannett hook up with Monster may remember how key Web acquisitions—comparison-shopping sites Shopzilla (SSP) and uSwitch (SSP) helped newspaper-and-cable conglomerate E.W. Scripps (SSP) outperform its newspaper brethren, at least until those properties came up short.

Based on the current lay of the land, there is one company to watch: Viacom (VIA). It owns top-tier content, including Comedy Central (VIA) and Paramount Pictures (VIA), yet its stock has badly trailed market indexes since it was uncoupled from CBS in January 2006. Taking the day’s dynamic to a logical extreme leads you to Viacom and Yahoo linking up. You’d get near-matchless Web distribution paired with content perfect for slicing and dicing online. You’d also get, I would bet, a corporate culture clash that would make your hair curl. But in moments like these, who knows? Of course, deal flurries often end badly. Just ask AOL Time Warner, whose stock took five years to begin its long climb back.

PE Investment En Route For NBCU-NWS NewCo? - We’ve been told that the NBCU-News Corp. JV variously known as NewCo and NewSite is in discussions with private equity firms about selling as much as a 10 percent stake in the video distribution enterprise slated to launch this summer. The goal would be $100 million for a valuation of $1 billion. I’m getting a “no comment” from NBCU on this, which could be interpreted any number of ways.     

Interpublic’s Digital Makeover: Repopulates Senior Team, Struggles To Replenish Younger Talent - Interpublic Group has been quietly repopulating itself with a management team steeped in digital media as part of a repositioning of its marketing and media services that is finally beginning to pay off.  

Relevance, Measurement Key To Email Industry Health - In a world of phishers, spammers and tension with ISPs over deliverability, the state of the email marketing industry is mixed. But marketers need look no further than their own practices to begin to change that.  

Video Ads Generate Highest European Click-Throughs; Overall Rates Down - According to an analysis by ADTECH AG, video ads generate the highest click-through rates in Europe, amidst declining click-through rates overall. 

More Retail E-Mail, But Delivery, Open And Click-Through Rates Lag - Internet Retailer reports that even though pay-per-click advertising and social networking are gaining status in retail marketing circles, E-mail remains one of the best one-on-one marketing tools retailers can use to attract and retain customers. The Internet Retailer latest monthly survey finds that merchants are expanding both the size and scope of their e-mail programs. The April survey of all subscribers of IRNewsLink, analyzed by Vovici Corp. finds that, of the 302 merchants taking part in the survey, 94.5% are building bigger opt-in lists and 64.7% are conducting more e-mail campaigns than a year ago.  

Social Network Marketing - eMarketer estimates that companies will spend $900 million in the US — and $330 million outside the US — on social network advertising this year. The lead players, MySpace and Facebook, will continue to perform strongly, accounting for 72% of all US revenue in the category, and with hundreds of new social networking ventures coming online, the intense activity in the space will continue into 2008 and beyond.

Facebook Adds Free Classifieds - Social networking Web site Facebook today will introduce Marketplace, a free classified ads service to compete with similar listings on Craiglist — and, as of this week, Facebook rival Friendster. Facebook members will be able to advertise offerings in four categories: housing; jobs; for sale, for items like concert tickets; and “other,” which would include things like solicitations for rides.

What’s Next For Yahoo? - Yahoo Chairman and Chief Executive Terry Semel has the backing of company board members to continue Yahoo’s “transformation” into a more competitive rival against Google. The picture painted on Wall Street, however, is that Semel has been one step behind the behemoth, out-Googled on potential acquisitions that would have narrowed the gap between Yahoo and Google.

MySpace Acquiring Photobucket; Pricing Around $250 Million - We have confirmed it through a reliable source and the deal has happened. The pricing is in the $250 million range in cash, though there might be a performance-based cash component for the next two years as well, from what we hear. This means the pricing came in close to the lower end of what the company and the bankers were expecting.

Liberty Media Buying Control In Outdoor Sports E-Commerce Network Backcountry - Cable operator Liberty Media hopes to enhance its web strategy with the purchase of “controlling stake” (not sure if that means fully or majority stake) e-commerce network Backcountry.com, which runs a series of sites focused on the sports and the outdoors. Liberty hopes to ally Backcountry with its TV and other e-commerce sites. Financial terms were not released.  

About.com Buys Reviews Site ConsumerSearch.com For $33 Million - About.com has been making small, strategic acquisitions over the last year: now it has bought ConsumerSearch.com, a product meta-reviews site, for $33 million in cash. The site focused on consumer products in 250 categories, ranging from digital cameras to snow blowers. The site generated 25 million page views in Q1, with 3 million unique monthly visitors, the company said.

Card Industry News/Info Site CardWeb.com Bought - CardWeb.com, a news and info service aimed at credit card, debit card and payment card executives, has been bought by Radcliffe Sherman LLC. CardWeb.com launched its daily online news service for the payment card industry in 1995. Radcliffe is a privately-held company headquartered in Fort Myers, Florida.

Microsoft Buys Minority Stake In CareerBuilder; Four Percent Could Be Worth $60M-$70M - It’s not as big as last week’s short-lived rumor about a merger with Yahoo, but Microsoft has in fact purchased a minority equity stake in jobs-site CareerBuilder.com. Microsoft becomes the first non-newspaper co-owner of Careerbuilder, joining its other parents Gannett, Tribune Company and The McClatchy Company. Terms were not disclosed.

SonicMountain Buys Podcast Aggregator Odeo - Digital hosting company SonicMountain has acquired podcast aggregator Odeo. The company had been looking for a buyer since February. Odeo’s parent Obvious said in an earlier blog post that it was unable to devote enough focus to developing the podcast venture since it was consumed by the takeoff of its widget product Twitter.

The World According To Esther Dyson - The future of search is transcending algorithms and a little square search box. It’s about personalization, and connecting people with what they want, and then acting upon it for them. Esther Dyson, chairman of EDventure Holdings, weighed in yesterday on the future of search, the wisdom–or not–of Microsoft buying Yahoo, and the opportunities in emerging markets.   

Nielsen Launches Online Video Measurement Service - In an increasingly video-driven online universe, Nielsen//NetRatings on Monday released a new syndicated measurement service, VideoCensus.

Break.com And Heavy.com Offer New Men’s Fare - Two leading men’s online entertainment sites have announced new ventures: Break.com has teamed with Twisted Pictures, producer of the Saw movies, to develop “The Internet Killer,” described as “the first online series of original horror films.” Heavy.com became the latest content provider to announce a content distribution deal with Joost.

Don’t Count Us Out: Microsoft Assuages Online Advertisers - Microsoft’s annual ad gathering this week in Seattle comes on the heels of big deals by Google and Yahoo, and the Redmond, Wash., giant wants its biggest advertising clients to know it isn’t sitting still in the space either. The confab falls three weeks after Microsoft lost out to Google in the bidding for DoubleClick and a week after Yahoo agreed to acquire online ad exchange Right Media.

Tracking Web Traffic: Upstarts Trump Titans - While NBC, The New York Times, Time Inc. and Clear Channel may be kings of the offline media world, it’s a whole new ballgame on the web, where such stalwarts regularly are thumped by smaller players such as The Weather Channel and About.com when it comes to traffic. That may sound surprising, but not when you consider the web’s strength as a reference medium and the head start online-only properties have had in important navigation techniques such as search optimization.

YouTube Morphs Into Mainstream Media - Blog Maverick’s Mark Cuban poses an interesting question about the future of YouTube, now that the Google video site has begun rewarding its higher-traffic generating content producers with a cut of ad revenue. How long before YouTube “corporates” itself out to become the next Clear Channel for the Web?

Photobucket, MySpace: The Overlapping Question - In response to the news that MySpace may be acquiring Photobucket for close to $300 million, reports across the Web weigh in on the extent to which the two companies are linked. The short answer: to a very great extent, which should give the photo storage site the upper hand in negotiations. Nevertheless, it’s MySpace that’s bullied Photobucket into accepting an offer, as Internet biggies like Google, Yahoo and MSN showed no interest.

YouTube’s Far Too Useful To Be Shunned — Even By Viacom Chief - Viacom might still be feuding in court with YouTube, but Viacom majority owner Sumner Redstone apparently doesn’t bear hard feelings toward the video-sharing site. Another company overseen by Redstone, CBS Corp’s Simon & Schuster, plans to develop a new video channel on YouTube, Bookvideos.tv, to promote authors. The book publisher will create about 40 clips that will offer glimpses into the lives of writers like Mary Higgins Clark and Sandra Brown, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Off-On-Off Microsoft/Yahoo Talks Engage Industry - Industry analysts, media buyers and search experts were buzzing as rumors swirled of a plan by Microsoft to acquire Yahoo for $50 billion. By the close of business Friday, any talks were already said to be over.   

Brightcove Picks Tremor Media As Primary Ad Sales Partner - Brightcove has chosen video ad network Tremor Media as its primary ad sales partner. The deal gives Tremor more streaming video ad inventory for marketers looking for safe places for brand advertising to appear.

Research Pros Concerned About Online Surveys, Recommend Solutions - In the wake of a tussle over questionable methods and cooperation rates of big online audience ratings firms like comScore and Nielsen//NetRatings, MarketResearchCareers, an online professional community for market researchers, has released a study indicating that a majority (57%) of researchers are concerned about the quality of online surveys due to declining cooperation rates.

Second Life Gains Traction In Europe - According to a new comScore analysis, Second Life’s base of active residents grew by 46% to 1.3 million in the first quarter of 07. So even as brands grapple with how best or whether to use it, the virtual world’s popularity is increasing–especially in Europe.

Ripple Effect: Retailers Get Digital Video Ads - A new company, Ripple, is poised to help businesses large and small create their own digital place-based video displays to promote inventory and drive traffic. The expansion of the new service, announced today, promises to democratize place-based video advertising, a medium long dominated by large video networks in cooperation with national retail chains.

Uncut E-mail Lists Can Hurt - Online retailers could improve sales by using segmented e-mail lists, according to an Internet Retailer survey analyzed by Vovici. Approximately 40% of respondents said that their e-mail campaigns yielded conversion rates of 2% or less. Vovici noted that 43% of respondents did not segment their mailing lists, which could have contributed to the low conversion rates. Identifying e-mail recipients by age, sex, annual income, past purchase history and other characteristics can generate more effective campaigns.

Why Google Should Worry About Microhoo - Forget the new entity with a combined share of 27% of all searches. Forget Microsoft’s $291.21 billion market cap. Google should be worried about a united Microsoft-Yahoo because of the touchpoints. After all, Microsoft and Yahoo have a combined reach that includes nearly all PC desktops, two of the three most popular search engines, and a portals presence with a truly enormous reach. And so a joint Microsoft-Yahoo would be able to capture users at every stage of computer use, keeping those users away from Google all the while.

Latest YouTube Suit Could Be Class Action - The lawsuits are piling up for video-sharing site YouTube. A United Kingdom soccer organization, the Football Association Premier League, along with music publisher Bourne, have just sued the site for copyright violations. The groups’ 39-page complaint, like Viacom’s lawsuit filed a few months ago, accuses Google’s YouTube of “engaging in, permitting encouraging and facilitating massive copyright infringement.”

Microsoft-Yahoo: Deal Or No Deal? - The Wall Street Journal went back on its own report late Friday, saying that merger talks between Microsoft and Yahoo stalled after engaging the industry with such news earlier in the day. CNNMoney reports that any kind of Microsoft-Yahoo advertising deal would be enough to make industry leader Google sit up and take notice.

Microsoft Prepares For Shopping Spree - The Microsoft-Yahoo talks reported by the New York Post on Friday actually took place several months ago. And while a deal might once again be on the backburner, Microsoft is in acquisition mode. company has already splashed out between $1 billion and $1.5 billion on acquisitions this year, including the voice recognition technology provider TellMe, which Bruce Jaffe, Microsoft’s vice president of corporate development, says helped boost the company’s average acquisition price to more than $60 million this year, underscoring its spending mood.

Warner Music Layoffs Tied To Digital Restructuring; Creates New Programming Unit - Warner Music Group is expected to layoff about 400 staffers as the company looks to focus more on its digital efforts, Billboard Biz reports. Unnamed sources told Billboard Biz that the layoffs will be staggered, rather than all coming down at once. The company plans to simultaneously invest in new initiatives, including more hires for its digital operations. On Monday, WMG said it was creating a new production division designed to develop and produce original programming for network, cable, DVD, broadband and mobile platforms.

Warner Bros. TV Makes First Online Deal; Exclusive With Joost - Joost reports that it has started to solve the server problems, which is a good thing since it keeps adding content partners. Warner Bros. Television Group is going online with Warner Bros.-branded programming services for the first time in an exclusive with Joost. The two channels: WBTV: SCI-FI FIX, classic and camp including My Favorite Martian and Aquaman, and WBTV: Before They Were Mega Stars, shows from the past featuring, yep, those deemed by WBTVG to now be megastars.

Newspaper Web Site Traffic Growing Nearly Twice As Fast As Overall Online: Report - The Newspaper Association of America (NAA) opened its national convention today with the requisite study/press release: a custom analysis by Nielsen/Net Ratings.NetView shows the newspaper web site audience is growing at nearly twice the rate of overall internet audience. This, of course, is viewed as validation of the industry’s investment in things digital.

NBCU To Stop Accepting 30 Second Online Ads For Short Videos; 15-Second Pre-Rolls Only - How did this happen? NBCU is making itself usable: it will not accept pre-roll online video ads longer than 15 seconds for short-form video content. The exception will be full-length episodes of broadcast-TV shows, which are longer duration and ad breaks are non-frequent. a revenue risk, considering about a quarter to a third of all pre-roll coming into NBC Universal still clocks in at 30 seconds. Not sure if other networks have similar policies, but will probably follow suit in some form soon.

Lots of people have asked me what is one of the best Asian movies I have seen recently?  I’m not sure its the best but a Korean thriller called Old Boy definitely ranks near the top.  Below is a trailer.  Enjoy!