Author Archive

• Schmidt: ‘We’re Back In Business Full Blast’
  paidContent, paidContent | January 22nd, 2010 at 7:49 am

  

  Only positive comments from CEO Eric Schmidt who led off his company’s earnings call by saying that Google (NSDQ: GOOG) had “performed well across the board” and by praising the company’s decision last quarter to once again ramp up its spending. “We’re back in business full blast,” he said, referring to the company’s strong quarterly results.

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• Will Microsoft’s Bing Become The iPhone’s New Default Search Engine?
  paidContent, paidContent | January 20th, 2010 at 7:40 am

  

  Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) and Google’s rivalry may be hitting a new high as reports roll in that the iPhone-maker may be talking to Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) about replacing Google (NSDQ: GOOG) with Bing as the default search engine on the popular smartphone.

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• Microsoft, Disney In Talks To Bring ESPN To Xbox Live
  paidContent, paidContent | January 19th, 2010 at 7:25 am

  

  Microsoft’s Xbox Live internet service, which recently lost one of its trump cards when rivals Sony (NYSE: SNE) and Nintendo matched its partnership with Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX), may soon fire back with a new content deal of its own. Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) “has held in-depth discussions” with Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) over a deal that would let Xbox 360 owners stream some live ESPN content directly on their consoles, theNYT reports.

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• Analyst: YouTube To Help Google’s Bottom Line This Year
  paidContent, paidContent | January 14th, 2010 at 1:18 pm

  

  Faced with murmurs that YouTube was on track to lose almost $500 million for Google (NSDQ: GOOG), executives went on the offensive last summer saying that the site was on a trajectory to become a “very profitable business” in the “not too distant future.”

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• EA’s Stock Dives On Lowered Holiday Sales Guidance
  paidContent, paidContent | January 12th, 2010 at 7:34 am

  

  First Take-Two, then GameStop, and now EA. Seems like it wasn’t such a happy holiday season for the video game industry, as Electronic Arts (NSDQ: ERTS) has become the latest game company to lower guidance in advance of its Q4 earnings report.

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• Google News Stops Hosting New AP Content
  paidContent, paidContent | January 9th, 2010 at 1:58 pm

  

  In a sign that Google’s negotiations with the Associated Press over a new licensing contract may have reached a standstill, new AP articles are no longer being hosted in Google (NSDQ: GOOG) News; Search Engine Land‘s Danny Sullivan, who first reported the development, says that new AP articles haven’t been hosted on the site since Dec. 24. Google isn’t providing an explanation. The company’s full statement: “We have a licensing agreement with the Associated Press that permits us to host its content on Google properties such as Google News. Some of that content is still available today. At the moment we’re not adding new hosted content from the AP.”

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• Google: Apple’s Quattro Buy Is Proof Of A ‘Competitive’ Mobile Ad Market
  paidContent, paidContent | January 6th, 2010 at 7:20 am

  

  If Google has its way, Highland Capital Partners and Globespan Capital Partners won’t be the only ones that benefit from Apple’s acquisition of Quattro Wireless ... It will reap some rewards from the deal, too.

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• Two Consumer Groups Try To Block Google’s Acquisition Of AdMob
  paidContent, paidContent | December 29th, 2009 at 7:30 am

  

  Stating concerns about Google’s dominance in the mobile advertising market and lack of competition, two consumer groups have asked the Federal Trade Commission to block Google’s $750 million acquisition of AdMob.

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• B&N Rush To Market With Nook Comes At A Cost
  paidContent, paidContent | December 21st, 2009 at 7:02 am

  

  Late last week, we reported that the IRex wireless digital reader is MIA until further notice but Sony (NYSE: SNE) and Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) still were promising to make their Dec. 24 deliveries. Not so fast. Despite canceling plans to sell the Nook in stores now in order to fulfill the early rush of orders, B&N admitted this weekend that it will not hit the mark. Instead, some buyers received an e-mail explaining how the company would make it up to them with holiday certificates to give the intended recipient—and a $100 BN.com gift certificate. Consumerist posted the e-mail, which shows the new delivery date as Dec. 29.

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• Take-Two’s Stock Rises On Icahn News, But Analysts Split On Long-Term Implications
  paidContent, paidContent | December 19th, 2009 at 12:01 pm

  

  Let the games begin. Take-Two (NSDQ: TTWO) Interactive’s shares jumped up by 12 percent today, buoyed by the news that activist investor Carl Icahn had upped his stake in the company on the belief that its stock was “undervalued.” The spike comes just two weeks after Take-Two’s share price dropped by 10 percent, when the company lowered guidance, and said it would likely post a full-year loss for 2010, too.

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• Google Reportedly In Talks To Buy Yelp
  paidContent, paidContent | December 18th, 2009 at 8:05 am

  

  Google (NSDQ: GOOG) may be about to make its biggest play for local business ad dollars yet. TechCrunch‘s Michael Arrington says the company is in late-stage talks to buy business reviews site Yelp; he puts the price at upwards of $500 million. That would be a solid premium to the $200 million valuation Yelp got when it last raised funds in February 2008 (Although Rafat thinks the price seems low, considering some other recent valuations startups have fetched). To date, Yelp has raised $31 million in funding.

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• Interview: CBS Interactive’s Neil Ashe: Ad Nets Never Provided Value To Us
  paidContent, paidContent | December 15th, 2009 at 7:10 am

  

  CBS Interactive’s move to curtail its dealings with ad networks effective today represents one of the key ways Cnet has influenced its parent since being acquired for $1.8 billion last year. Madison (named for the avenue), the in-house online ad serving platform that CBS Interactive (NYSE: CBS) will rely on in place of ad nets, isn’t new; Cnet has been using it for years. Now it’s being extended now across CBS, Neil Ashe, CBS Interactive’s president told paidContent, adding that none of the Cnet brands have used ad nets in the company’s entire 14-year history.

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• CBS Cuts Ties To Outside Ad Networks For Display, Launches Its Own
  paidContent, paidContent | December 14th, 2009 at 7:21 am

  

  CBS Interactive is cutting the cord on third-party ad networks and some online ad exchanges effective immediately, paidContent has learned. The company is preparing its own ad serving platform, dubbed Madison, to power the CBS Interactive (NYSE: CBS) Premium Ad Network for its group of properties, betting that it can better handle its own inventory as the economy begins to recover.

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• Can TiVo Reinvent Itself in Time?
  paidContent, paidContent | December 13th, 2009 at 1:05 pm

  

  TiVo (NSDQ: TIVO) president and CEO Tom Rogers says he doesn’t run a DVR company…According to Rogers, TiVo is not a DVR hardware provider or even a software company, but a “television behavioral company at heart.” Rogers is now scrambling to convince cable operators — whose own DVRs have contributed to the decline in people willing to pay for TiVo service — that he’s able to offer much more than just the best DVR on the planet.

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• eMarketer Trims ‘09 Online Ad Forecast (Again), But Calls ‘Bottom’
  paidContent, paidContent | December 12th, 2009 at 12:17 pm

  

  eMarketer is out with what should be its last online ad spend forecast for the year—and the final stats for 2009 are even gloomier than they were when it updated projections in October. The company estimates that total online ad spending in the U.S. for 2009 will end up at $22.4 billion, down 4.6 percent vs. 2008; eMarketer previously said the drop would be just 2.9 percent.

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