Articles of the Day
IAC: 100 Layoffs Coming At Ask.com; Search Deal With Google Possible - A source has confirmed to us a coming shakeup at IAC-owned Ask.com that includes about 100 layoffs in the April time frame. SAI reported this morning that the site may pull the plug on its own search efforts, and instead power itself with Google (NSDQ: GOOG ) search, a la AOL.
XM And Sirius Extend Merger Agreement Until May 1 -This should be long enough: XM (NSDQ: XMSR) and Sirius (NSDQ: SIRI) have extended their merger agreement to May 1, as the clock continues to tick on regulatory approval. Both companies have said they expect approval in the near future, but the agreement had been set to expire tomorrow, so they had no choice but to extend. Last week, the agreement to merge turned a year old, a year in which numerous rumors of an “imminent approval” were proven wrong.
PwC Media Outlook: Strategic Buyers To Dominate In ‘08; Fewer Mega Deals; More Consolidation - In light of the credit markets, PricewaterhouseCoopers predicts media deals in 2008 will be dominated by strategic buyers, but that private equity buyers aren’t going to disappear. While leverage-backed buyers obviously face challenging conditions, they continue to raise prodigious gobs of cash-$281 billion in 2007-that will be parked somewhere. For 2008, there’s no indication (yet) that investors are planning to allocate less money to these firms. Old line media assets, like cable and publishing are the most likely acquisition targets. As for strategic media buyers, the song in 2008 will remain the same: traditional media companies will keep making deals to help them navigate sand shifts brought on by digital.
Will RealNetworks End Up Buying Scrabulous? -I had the exact same thought that Om had after I read the NYT piece last night AND when RealNetworks (NSDQ: RNWK) PR sent out a note about the story, explaining their neutral position in the copyright controversy over the crazily popular Facebook app. Scrabulous is the new Tetris. The game, which claims to attract more than 700,000 daily players, was created last year by Kolkata, India-based brothers Jayant and Rajat Agarwalla. But it didn’t take off until it was added to Facebook a few months ago, where it quickly became one of the top 10 apps. Negotiations have been going on between Hasbro and Mattel (joint owners of Scrabble right) on one hand; and Electronic Arts (NSDQ: ERTS) and RealNetworks on the other hand (joint owners of digital rights), and the two brothers.
Global Radio bids USD737.3m for GCap in final offer - Global Radio is raising its offer for GCap Media to GBP370.9m (USD737.3m), with less than one day to go before the Mar 5 deadline set by the Takeover Panel. The improved bid values the radio group at 225p a share, 11% more than last month’s 202p per share offer. The bid also represents a 20% premium on Monday’s GCap closing price and is 86% higher than GCap’s stock price before the takeover attempt began. Global Radio, led by Former ITV CEO Charles Allen, has urged GCap shareholders to encourage the board to accept the offer.”
Gamer Ad Network Reaches 9 Billion Monthly Impressions - Intergi has emerged as the latest contender in the vertical ad network space, as the gaming and entertainment-focused ad network has hit the 9 billion mark in terms of monthly impressions–and boasts average campaign click through rates (CTRs) of 0.5% network-wide. Barely a year old, Deerfield Beach, Fla.-based Intergi has grown to include more than 500 properties, including independent sites devoted to massively multiplayer online (MMO) games like Blizzard’s World of Warcraft, as well as properties under the Sony Online Entertainment and Wizards of the Coast umbrellas.
Qtrax Strikes Deals With Music Publishers - In a step toward offering free music downloads, Qtrax Monday announced it had agreements with two publishers: Sony/ATV Music Publishing, which expanded a prior deal with Qtrax, and EMI Publishing, which renewed one with the company.
Mobile TV Needs To Be Free - Experts claim that to take off, mobile video will either have to be free and ad-supported or cost very little and be ad-supported. A survey of 1,004 users last year from In-Stat found that while most people are interested in viewing video content on their mobile phones, 80 percent said they wouldn’t pay $15 per month for it. In fact, IDC Research adds that even among those who do watch mobile content on their phones (roughly 2 percent of U.S. wireless users according to M:Metrics), the vast majority opt for $2 downloads rather than pay a monthly subscription.
Microsoft Strike Silverlight Deal With Nokia - Microsoft on Tuesday announced a new deal with Nokia to put its Silverlight technology in front of the Finnish handset maker’s millions of mobile phone users. Silverlight allows developers to create multimedia applications independent of browser, operating system and handset. Because of its interoperability, the technology is seen as a direct competitor to Adobe’s market-dominating Flash, which is already on millions of mobile phones.
