Articles of the Day
Outsell: Digital B2B Revs Exceed Print By 2009 - In the business-to-business media category, 2009 will be a watershed year as online and related digital revenues surpass print revenues for the first time, according to a forecast by Outsell, Inc., a consultancy serving the information industry. The report, authored by Outsell analyst Chuck Richards, may be a harbinger of similar changes to come in the general consumer media as well.
Bytes & Bites: Chapter 8 - A Datamonitor study says that global active memberships in social networking sites are expected to reach 230 million at the end of 2007. That’s 230 million invitations to join groups that you can’t keep up with or even understand why you belong to.
Report: Facebook Set to Collect $260 Million More - Facebook apparently isn’t done collecting money from third-party investors: the Internet upstart is in talks with hedge funds and private equity firms to raise as much as $260 million. The news comes just two days after the company completed the sale of 1.6% of its equity to Microsoft for $240 million. Nothing has been signed yet, but an announcement should be forthcoming, unless the talks, which are preliminary, collapse in the next week or so. The investments, like the Microsoft deal, would also value the company at $15 billion.
Is MySpace Running Out of Time to Deliver? - Facebook may be ubiquitous, but rival MySpace is still three to four times the size of Mark Zuckerberg’s white-hot social network. It’s also older, too, which means the pressure on parent News Corp. to turn the 100 million member-plus social network into a money-making machine is building. Analysts and investors are waiting.
Yahoo’s Givin’ Out Link Love — But Can You Get Some? - At the Q3 earnings call last week, Yahoo’s CEO Jerry Yang noted that the company would soon open up its homepage to third-party developers (for widgets and other apps) as well as more non-Yahoo content. It’s all part of Yahoo’s goal to become the main start page for a majority of people on the Web.
Looking To Acquire An Interactive Shop? Ad Age Has A List - A list of the top 20 remaining independent digital agency acquisition candidates.
WPP Acquires Blast Radius - WPP is getting additional new media assets with the acquisition of Vancouver-based interactive shop Blast Radius. The agency will be aligned with Wunderman after the deal closes. Founded 10 years ago, Blast Radius’s client roster includes AOL, Electronic Arts, Nike, and Starbucks. It earned roughly $60 million in revenue this year, and has offices in San Francisco, New York, Toronto, Amsterdam and London.
Omniture to Acquire Visual Sciences - Omniture Inc. (NasdaqGM:OMTR - News), a leading provider of online business optimization software, today announced a definitive agreement to acquire Visual Sciences, Inc. (NasdaqGM:VSCN - News) in a stock and cash transaction valued at approximately $394 million.
CNET Sells Off Photo Sharing Site Webshots To American Greetings, For $45 Million - CNET (NSDQ: CNET) Networks has done its first online divestment for a while: it has sold its once-high-flying online photo sharing site Webshots, to American Greetings (NYSE: AM) for $45 million. Webshots is still among the biggest photo sharing sites, and certainly one of the originals in the space, but with competition from the likes of Flickr, Facebook’s photo sharing app, Photobucket and plenty of others, has seen its dominance decline.
Gannett Buys Schedule Star, Parent Of Athletic Community HighSchoolSports.net - Apart from its somewhat negative earnings report this morning, Gannett (NYSE: GCI) is building up its digital holdings by taking a controlling interest in Schedule Star, which runs athletic community site HighSchoolSports.net. Financial terms were not disclosed.The Bridgeport, OH-based company claims it has over 6,500 schools subscribing to its Schedule Star athletic management system, which updates team stats and event information. Gannett plans to incorporate features from Schedule Star and HighSchoolSports.net local with its local newspapers, TV stations and websites as a way to increase ad revenue and readership.
Content Manager Interwoven Purchases Web Page Optimizer Optimost For $52 Million In Cash - Content management software maker Interwoven has acquired interactive marketing services firm Optimost for $52 million in cash. The merger is intended to provide both with a way to create, deliver and analyze targeted online content.
Social Maps Site Platial Acquires FrapprZ - Portland, OR-based Platial, an aggregator of user-generated content based on geography, is acquiring Frappr, a social mapping site based in San Francisco. The companies believe that the combined entity will account for 25 percent of distributed map widgets. In the release, Platial CEO Di-Ann Eisnor said the acquisition will allow it to create a more effective advertising model, using location and social data.
Updated: WordPress In Play, Velocity Among Others In The Mix; WP Buys - Updated: Automattic, the company behind WordPress, the popular commercial blog software , is a sales candidate, according to our sources. The difference between Automattic’s hopes and what buyers are willing to pay so far is holding back progress. The range we’ve heard is from $150 million to $300 million…the upper end being the company’s hopes, and the lower end being the amount buyers are interested in. (We think it would sell quickly at the lower end, and, no, we don’t get commission.)
