Microsoft's (NSDQ: MSFT) talks with WPP Group seem to be taking a more serious turn on the subject of the software giant selling off digital ad shop, Avenue A/Razorfish, AdAge reports. Microsoft acquired Avenue A/Razorfish when it bought the company's parent, aQuantive, last August for about $6 billion. That purchase [...]
Portfolio |
August 19th, 2008 |
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Blaise Zerega is stunned. Who knew these ad networks were so valuable? Wow. There were 160 venture capital investments in ad companies from Q1 2007 to Q2 2008, worth more than $2.1 billion. And in same period, there were 100 acquisitions worth about $20 billion, according to a new report [...]
Once burnt, twice shy? I suppose that's the reason Microsoft is not loaded for bear and headed back down to Sunnyvale to make another play for Yahoo right now. Not even after Jerry Yang orchestrated activist investor Carl Icahn's defenestration, by inviting him on the board at Yahoo (YHOO), where [...]
One thing is absolutely true: It is Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and only Ballmer who knows for sure whom he is most interested in to take over the dicey job of head of the software giant long-suffering online services business. But there is a movement afoot among its developers and [...]
After last night's surprise news, this becomes a lot more interesting: Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) is hosting a day-long analyst event today, kicking off with Steve Ballmer at 11:40 (ET). Suffice to say, they'll have plenty to talk about. You can catch the live webcast and a schedule here, and we'll [...]
The average value of merger and acquisition activity in the US marketing, advertising and digital media industries declined in the first half of this year. While the number of transactions was up 21% compared to the first six months of 2007, dollar volume was down 26% , according to investment [...]
MediaPost |
June 18th, 2008 |
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On the heels of its failed offer to acquire online advertising giant Yahoo, Microsoft has once again shifted its focus to the interactive television world, announcing the acquisition early this morning of Navic Networks, a leading developer of addressable TV advertising technologies. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but [...]
At EconAds the final panel of the day took a step back and analyzed a big part of what keeps the ad business thriving, activity in VC and M&A.; Inevitably, the Microsoft-Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) possibility became a hot topic and while it became clear there was no one answer, Microsoft's [...]
AKQA is an interactive ad agency driven by ideas to inspire its clients to move forward in the digital era. Some of the services AKQA provides are designing interactive experiences for its clients. It also provides content creation and distribution as well as E-commerce and technology solutions for them. The [...]
Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) and Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO)—will the deal happen? Will any deal happen? Those questions met with uncertain answers from ContentNext's EconAds' final panel, a look at deals and the online ad marketplace. Bruce Jaffe, former Corporate VP, Corporate Development for Microsoft seemed like the perfect person to provide [...]
Wired |
May 20th, 2008 |
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News from Portfolio.com Also on Portfolio Microsoft's Supreme Search Screw-up AOL's Blast From the Past Selling Off the Pennsylvania Turnpike: A Good Idea? Subscribe to Portfolio magazine Three weeks before it embarked on its blundering attempt to acquire Yahoo, a Google-obsessed Microsoft agreed to pay a juicy $1.23 billion for [...]
GigaOM |
May 19th, 2008 |
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Kevin Johnson, the president of Microsoft's platforms and services division, sent out this memo to company employees in which he outlines the Microsoft's strategy in online advertising. He also refers to the press statement issued in reference to Yahoo. The company is sending mixed messages, both to the outside world [...]
Although ad agencies' digital revenues have been growing significantly over the past few years, they tended to remain a small slice of the total spending pie. Last year was different, as AdAge's Agency Report demonstrates, showing digital revenue assuming a more prominent place in ad firms' overall business. Despite moderate [...]
Portfolio |
May 4th, 2008 |
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Are we to praise Steve Ballmer, or bury him? Oh, what the heck, let's do both. Though we'll go light on the praise part. Because Microsoft has proven itself to be horrendous at this whole M&A; game. Microsoft-Yahoo won't happen, and it was never a good idea -- not at [...]
Austin Ventures, the VC and private equity firm, has launched its eighth mini-rollup fund in the last five years, and this is an intriguing one: it is putting $50 million into a vehicle led by former CEO of Razorfish, Jeff Dachis, to build an Austin-based corporate social networking software and [...]
It looks to me like Microsoft (MSFT) decided that the "technology guarantee" reveal was holding down the compare of Microsoft's third quarter of FY 2008 with 3Q FY 2007 so much that the company just stuffed business back in the drawer. In fact, when aQuantive results from the first calendar [...]
ONLINE ADVERTISING ART DIRECTOR Let?s start with a secret: Art Directors are arguably the most important player on a digital creative team (don?t tell your Creative Director).[...]
Associate Creative Directors are the Superglue of creative teams. Specialists and generalists, renaissance thinkers and hands-on doers, they multi-task, question, and make it[...]
