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• Yahoo's week of drama

  Posted Apr 11 2008, 12:09 PM by Kim Peterson
  Filed under: Google, Microsoft, AOL, Yahoo, Kim Peterson
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  My, how things can change in a week. Last Friday, Microsoft was putting the screws to Yahoo, telling Reuters it was "evaluating" its $31-a-share bid for the company because Yahoo has dropped in value. 

  This week, a furious round of wheeling and dealing has given Yahoo the edge. I have to hand it to CEO Jerry Yang. His flirtation with AOL and Google is putting incredible pressure on Microsoft to raise its offer. The market seems to like where all this is headed: Yahoo shares are up slightly from where they started the week and closed today at $28.34.

  The Street seems to think a Microsoft acquisition is still the most likely scenario, and Yahoo shares are up because of a general belief that Yang can extract more money out of the deal. And while things today may appear murkier than ever, this corporate drama seems to be careening (wildly, perhaps) to some sort of closure, possibly in the next week.   Read More...

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• Social networks, video-sharing sites losing their promise

  Posted Feb 05 2008, 02:59 PM by Douglas McIntyre
  Filed under: Google, AOL, Yahoo, YouTube, MySpace
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  A look at News Corp earnings shows that the "other" revenue and profit line, which is mostly its online service MySpace, only had an operating profit of $23 million. MySpace is one of the largest websites in the world. That can't be good for the value of social networks. So far, there is not a lot of evidence that the universe's largest video-sharing site, YouTube, is bringing in much money for Google.

  According to The Wall Street Journal, an "issue is advertiser comfort with having their ads displayed alongside less-predictable content."

  Predictability is not the entire problem. Social networks and video-sharing sites are a maze of unrelated content of questionable quality. Sites like MySpace have a large portion of their members who are weirdos and agoraphobics. Advertisers who spend any times on these sites know that.   Read More...

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• Cutting 2,000 jobs at AOL is a good start

  Posted Oct 15 2007, 11:23 AM by Kim Peterson
  Filed under: Google, Microsoft, AOL, Yahoo, Time Warner

  

  It's been a long time since AOL was considered a serious competitor to Microsoft or Yahoo. The company has never been a threat to Google. I would say today's announcement of 2,000 staff cuts marks the end of an era, but I think that already happened. 

  Paring 2,000 from a workforce of 10,000 is significant, but it isn't enough. According to a staff memo by CEO Randy Falco, the layoffs will help the company continue its massive push into online advertising. AOL changed its strategy in August 2006 to focus on advertising and move away from the subscription Internet access business. The company has been slashing jobs since 2001, when it had 18,000 employees.

  Certainly the cuts were necessary. In August, Time Warner pulled back its ad growth forecasts for the year. Its Q2 ad sales grew by only 16%, down from 40% for four previous quarters. And on the Internet access side, AOL lost 1.1 million paying subscribers. A lot of lines are trending down at AOL, and a massive layoff will help reverse that   Read More...

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