Articles of the Day
Yellow Book Network, Google Are Tops, Per ComScore And Nielsen — Yellow Book Network was the fastest-growing Web property in March–increasing traffic 54% to 13.5 million visitors, according to comScore. The Internet Yellow Pages services got a lift from a new partnership with business look-up service Addresses.com. With the start of the baseball season, fans also flocked to MLB.com, driving up traffic 50% to 9.8 million visitors. Bankrate.com and its affiliated sites enjoyed a 46% gain to 5 million through the addition of InsureMe.com in early March. Among video sites, Break Media grabbed the spotlight as its audience increased 35% to 7.9 million.
Tremor Unveils New Video Ad Platform At NAB — Tremor Media will let Web publishers deliver in-stream and overlay video ads from multiple sources in a single dashboard through the latest version of its video ad platform, unveiled Monday night at the annual National Association of Broadcasters conference in Las Vegas. Sites in Tremor’s network of 800 mostly mid-tier properties, therefore, will be able to run ads sold not only through Tremor, but by their own sales forces and other ad networks.
YouTorrent Looks For Buyers — BitTorrent meta-search engine YouTorrent is trying to sell itself only four months after the launch. The startup, which lets users search for ‘torrents’ across the web, has now restricted its service to sites hosting legal torrents and officially put itself on sale. “The YouTorrent project has grown very quickly and, unfortunately, is not in line with the owning companies core business,” one of the startup managers named merely as ‘Patrick’ told blog TorrentFreak. “We have had some interest to buy from some parties. On that basis, we have presented the site to other parties in the space to see if there is interest there also.”
Blinkx In Video Deal With The Guardian — Blinkx will show video reports from The Guardian website, as part of an ad deal with the London-based newspaper. Under the agreement, Blinkx will use its Adhoc platform to serve relevant ads along with the videos, with the partners sharing revenues from advertising. The Guardian’s commercial director Adam Freeman expects revenue from the service to be small, but says this is only one of many deals the newspaper is signing for its content. The Guardian already has an agreement to show its video news on online TV service Joost. Guardian.co.uk launched its video section last Sep and now claims to produce 25 original video packages each week. For Blinkx, the deal follows content agreements with the BBC, Fox News and CNN.
WPP Unveils USD8.1m Minority Stake In Realtime Worlds — Advertising giant WPP says it acquired a minority stake in Realtime Worlds for USD8.1m, as part of a USD50m investment round in the Scottish game developer, first disclosed last month. WPP was not named among the round’s investors in initial reports. Maverick Capital led the funding and was accompanied by return backer New Enterprise Associates, which led a USD31m investment in Dec 2006. Founded in Dundee in 2002, Realtime has worked on popular games titles such as ‘Crackdown’, ‘Lemmings’ and ‘Grand Theft Auto’. It employs more than 200 staff, including those in its Colorado offices. WPP says the investment “builds on the new online advertising formats and content.” It is also an investor in ad-supported game network WildTangent.
MySpace Commissions Producers Of Bebo’s Kate Modern — News Corp-owned MySpace has ordered an original drama from the makers of Bebo’s Kate Modern, London-based Big Balls Films, reports Brand Republic. Called ‘I Love Chieftown’, the show will consist of 60 episodes, each between four and five minutes long. The move appears as an attempt to replicate the success of ‘Kate Modern’, the popular online series which launched on Bebo last Apr. Five advertising partners - Paramount, Disney’s Buena Vista, Orange, Microsoft and Proctor & Gamble - each paid at least GBP250,000 (USD497,000) to have their brands featured in the series, says the report. Bebo - now owned by AOL - recently teamed up with the BBC’s Radio1 to produce an episode of the show.
Carl Icahn Steps In After Circuit City Rejects Blockbuster’s USD1bn Bid — Blockbuster shareholder Carl Icahn says he will finance the company’s bid for Circuit City Stores personally, after the electronics retailers rejected the USD1bn-plus cash offer unveiled yesterday. Icahn, who owns 16% of Blockbuster class A shares, says he is willing to back up the offer as a guarantee of financial security for the deal. His comments come after Circuit City rejected the buyout offer, citing doubts that Blockbuster would be able to finance the deal. The electronics chain did not say how Icahn’s intervention would impact its decision, but says it will continue to consider the offer. Video rental chain Blockbuster first submitted its unsolicited bid for Circuit City two months ago, but decided to make it public on Apr 14 to win over shareholders’ support. The cash offer, at USD6 to USD8-per-share, is a significant premium on City Circuit stock, which closed at USD3.9 last Friday.
