Articles of the Day
TheStreet.com Posts 12.5% Jump in Q2 Profits - 2nd quarter profits at TheStreet.com were up 12.5% year-over-year thanks to growing subscriptions and advertising revenue. That amounted to $3.6 million, compared to the $3.2 million recorded in second-quarter 2006. Revenue was up 20% to $14.9 million year-over-year from $12.4 million. Notably, non-endemic ad revenue rose 206% year-over-year, representing 39% of the site’s total ad revenue this quarter.
Havas Reports 2Q Growth Up 5.4% - Thanks to the new client gains, Havas on Thursday reported second quarter growth up 5.4%, excluding growth related to currencies, acquisitions and divestitures. That brought growth for the first half of the year to 4.4%. Notable new account wins in the period included drugs giant Sanofi-Aventis and household goods manufacturer Reckitt Benckiser. Sales rose to $1 billion in the six months ending June 30, with net new business up 38%. High growth areas included healthcare communication and media consulting.
The Internet is Dead, Long Live the Intranet - Mark Cuban, who famously got away with selling Broadcast.com to Yahoo in 1999 for $5.7 billion, declared Wednesday: “The Internet’s dead. It’s over.” Speaking before a room of operators of high-bandwidth cable systems, Cuban said the Internet is for old people, adding that YouTube was the “new application” of any importance. The future, he said, belongs to intranets, or closed networks.
Microsoft Calm About Under-Performing Areas - Microsoft Chief Steve Ballmer conceded to a hammering from financial analysts in a recent meeting, who said the company should focus on its core desktop and software business and get out of the content, video games and electronics businesses. Ballmer responded that the software giants needed to be in every sector if it wants to realize its dream of integrating software, media and distribution.
Wall Street Expects Big Numbers From AOL - Since its landmark decision to ditch its dying dial-up Web business, AOL has enjoyed three straight quarters of solid growth in online advertising. The Time Warner company is still miles away from offsetting the revenue lost from its ISP business, but Wall Street appears to be happy. “Time Warner has resuscitated AOL from the dead,” said portfolio manager Diane Jaffee of the TCW Diversified Value fund. Her company is the (happy) owner of about 1.3 million shares of Time Warner stock.
Viacom’s Copyright Dilemma - A new twist in the Viacom-YouTube lawsuit came out in a New York federal court this morning. Viacom complains that users have uploaded “many, many thousands” of its clips to the video-sharing site. But it became clear in court today that Viacom has no idea how many of its clips have been uploaded — and no good way to obtain a precise count. That’s because Viacom isn’t just suing over clips that have been uploaded to the public portion of the site. It claims the clips that users uploaded but marked “private” also violate copyright.
AOL Reels in Behavior Targeting Network Tacoda - AOL is bringing behavioral targeting into its stable, acquiring Tacoda, an advertising network that targets users by their online behavior, for $275 million. The Time Warner-owned internet portal beat out Microsoft in the bidding, according to a person with knowledge of the deal. AOL wouldn’t say whether it would deploy the technology on its owned-and-operated sites or across its Advertising.com display network, but would only tout the value of the scale the Tacoda network brings to the table.
Hearst Ups The Male Factor With Acquisition of Ugo Networks - Eyeing male audiences, Hearst Corp. now plans to buy Ugo Networks and its group of sites devoted to gaming, movies, and entertainment. Ugo’s sites attract 28 million worldwide. Terms were not disclosed.
TradeDoubler Buys U.K. Search Marketing Agency IMW Group For $115 Million - TradeDoubler, the Stockholm-based pan-European internet affiliate advertising network, has bought Internet Marketing Works (IMW Group), a holding group for two two search marketing companies, for £56 million ($115 million) in cash. Founded in 1999, IMW Group operates The Search Works, which mediates buying of search advertising on sites including Google and Yahoo, and The Technology Works, the arm of the company that comes up with software like BidBuddy to automate the process.
CNET Acquires SportsGamer To Broaden Gaming Coverage - Tucked into CNET Network earnings (Nasdaq: CNET) Thursday, an announcement that the company has added—acq-hired, to be more exact—SportsGamer.com. with its focus on mainstream sports games, to extend GameSpot’s reach in the category. The deal closed earlier this month and the site, along with its community of sports gamers, is already part of CNET. Nothing official about terms but gather the range was high six-low seven figures.
