Nice timing, Acacia Research Corporation. The mother of all patent trolls patent acquisition, development and licensing company, which was profiled in depth by BusinessWeek just two days ago, this morning announced that it has been awarded a total of $12.4 million in a patent infringement case against Yahoo.
On May 15th, 2009, a federal court jury decided that Yahoo's messenger program with IMVironments ¿ which revolves around interactive backgrounds that users can add to IM conversations ¿ infringes US Patent Number 6,205,432, filed by a trio of inventors and published back in 2001.
The patent was described as follows:
An advertisement system and method are provided for inserting into an end user communication message a background reference to an advertisement. In some embodiments, the background reference causes an advertisement image to be tiled, or watermarked, across an end user screen behind the text of an e-mail message or public posting.
According to today's statement, Acacia subsidiary Creative Internet Advertising Corporation received a $12.4 million final judgment stemming from its May 2009 trial verdict (PDF) and corresponding $6.6 million damages award in its patent lawsuit.
In addition, the District Court?s judgment awarded a post-verdict ongoing royalty rate of 23% for all of Yahoo?s IMVironments sales.
To learn more about Acacia Research Corporation and its business, I suggest you read up on the company by heading to the BusinessWeek profile.
To give you an idea: Acacia essentially buys patents from inventors and then seeks fees from companies that it says infringe on those patents. It's in the business of suing companies rather than producing products or services; the company is said to have filed at least 337 patent-related lawsuits since its inception in 1992.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Buys Yahoo's HotJobs Site for $225M
The piecemeal sell off of Yahoo continued this week as Monster picked up Yahoo's HotJobs site for $225 million. The deal between the two companies will make Monster the default job listing provider in the U.S. and Canada for the next three years.
"The transaction with Monster enables us to continue to provide an important service to our users through the traffic agreement," Yahoo's executive vice president Hillary Schnieder said in a press release issued Wednesday. "Yahoo remains focused on its core businesses and delivering exceptional experiences to users, partners and advertisers."
HotJobs has been a part of Yahoo since 2002, when the company acquired the site for $432 million.
"The transaction with Monster enables us to continue to provide an important service to our users through the traffic agreement," Yahoo's executive vice president Hillary Schnieder said in a press release issued Wednesday. "Yahoo remains focused on its core businesses and delivering exceptional experiences to users, partners and advertisers."
HotJobs has been a part of Yahoo since 2002, when the company acquired the site for $432 million.
Does Monster's Acquisition Of Yahoo! HotJobs Matter If The Internet Is The Job Board
Monsters acquisition of Yahoo HotJobs signals a significant landscape change for a job board industry facing significant economic pressure and I believe the deal also marks a ?new normal? in how companies are hiring talent. Online recruiting is transitioning away from ?the Big Three? job boards. The Internet is becoming the job board.
Of course, unloading and closing properties that are not part of Yahoo?s strategy going forward is smart. (Though selling a job advertising board smack in the middle of this downturn and extreme unemployment must have been as hard as selling an empty, foreclosed home in Las Vegas right now.)
But more importantly, this acquisition is an indicator of a rapid evolution as more hiring takes place online. Venture-backed startups are transforming this industry as new technologies begin to change how companies find and attract talent. The elephant in the room is that the economic jolt of September 2008 has permanently altered the job market and dramatically accelerated labor trends underway for many years, such as the growth in job turnover throughout a person's career.
Increases in unemployment, under-employment and turnover are boosting traffic to nearly all job boards and job search engines ? and the number of online applications to resource-depleted recruiting departments. Companies are spending more money sifting through unqualified applications, so they are naturally spending less on job boards and taking advantage of free sites, like Indeed, to post and distribute their jobs.
To combat the influx of poor-fit applications, companies are turning to new technologies and online services to target talent and search across the open Web for people who may not be actively searching for a job on a board. This is possible because 42% of working adults in the US now maintain a profile somewhere online?most notably on LinkedIn and Facebook, but also on Twitter and services like Jigsaw, an SF-based, user-generated database of professionals. And the downturn is growing this number.
The more innovative recruiters at growing companies like Zappos and Dell are now are using social media to engage prospective candidates in a genuine and inexpensive way: building candidate communities in their career site and blogs, search engine optimizing job listings, distributing jobs through social networks to dramatically drive referrals, and tracking web analytics by job to determine their best sources of talent.
To me, the more interesting acquisition was Monster?s purchase 18 months ago of Trovix, a Bay Area startup that built a behavioral algorithm for matching jobs and resumes to help recruiters sift through applicants and jobseekers through jobs. But, the irony is that they will be ?unveiling? this new technology, dubbed 6Sense, on this weekend?s (expensive) Super Bowl, the annual marketing battleground of the big, horizontal job boards.
As funny as those ads can be, they are not likely to solve the job boards? bigger marketing challenge: how to convince companies to spend more money ?posting and praying? that the best person applies for their job when the broader, open Internet is fast becoming the new, cost-effective ?job board? of talent. This week?s combination of Monster and Hotjobs isn't going to solve that problem either.
Of course, unloading and closing properties that are not part of Yahoo?s strategy going forward is smart. (Though selling a job advertising board smack in the middle of this downturn and extreme unemployment must have been as hard as selling an empty, foreclosed home in Las Vegas right now.)
But more importantly, this acquisition is an indicator of a rapid evolution as more hiring takes place online. Venture-backed startups are transforming this industry as new technologies begin to change how companies find and attract talent. The elephant in the room is that the economic jolt of September 2008 has permanently altered the job market and dramatically accelerated labor trends underway for many years, such as the growth in job turnover throughout a person's career.
Increases in unemployment, under-employment and turnover are boosting traffic to nearly all job boards and job search engines ? and the number of online applications to resource-depleted recruiting departments. Companies are spending more money sifting through unqualified applications, so they are naturally spending less on job boards and taking advantage of free sites, like Indeed, to post and distribute their jobs.
To combat the influx of poor-fit applications, companies are turning to new technologies and online services to target talent and search across the open Web for people who may not be actively searching for a job on a board. This is possible because 42% of working adults in the US now maintain a profile somewhere online?most notably on LinkedIn and Facebook, but also on Twitter and services like Jigsaw, an SF-based, user-generated database of professionals. And the downturn is growing this number.
The more innovative recruiters at growing companies like Zappos and Dell are now are using social media to engage prospective candidates in a genuine and inexpensive way: building candidate communities in their career site and blogs, search engine optimizing job listings, distributing jobs through social networks to dramatically drive referrals, and tracking web analytics by job to determine their best sources of talent.
To me, the more interesting acquisition was Monster?s purchase 18 months ago of Trovix, a Bay Area startup that built a behavioral algorithm for matching jobs and resumes to help recruiters sift through applicants and jobseekers through jobs. But, the irony is that they will be ?unveiling? this new technology, dubbed 6Sense, on this weekend?s (expensive) Super Bowl, the annual marketing battleground of the big, horizontal job boards.
As funny as those ads can be, they are not likely to solve the job boards? bigger marketing challenge: how to convince companies to spend more money ?posting and praying? that the best person applies for their job when the broader, open Internet is fast becoming the new, cost-effective ?job board? of talent. This week?s combination of Monster and Hotjobs isn't going to solve that problem either.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Yahoo, MSN Ready Olympic Coverage
The Olympic site from Yahoo Sports features extensive coverage of the event led by writers Dan Wetzel, Charles Robinson, and Martin Rogers. Yahoo has also lined up a team of ex-Olympians as contributors including 1998 figure skating silver medalist Elvis Stojko and 1996 gold-medal gymnast Dominique Dawes.
The latter will host a daily video recap of top stories and preview upcoming Olympic events. Yahoo will also have its own custom-built studio in Vancouver.
Other specialized content will include "Fourth-Place Medal," an Olympics blog authored by Yahoo Sports editors Chris Chase and Greg Wyshynski.
The mobile site, which debuts February 9, will provide the latest Olympics news, including medal counts, live results and athlete profiles.
Through its "Fancouver" entertainment center, Yahoo will offer Olympics visitors a free Wi-Fi lounge, photo booth, live video streaming "fan-cam" and games and giveaways. Yahoo is also running a sweepstakes in which fans starting Jan. 25 can submit their favorite winter sports photos for a chance to win prizes ranging from digital cameras to a trip to the U.S. Freestyle Skiing Championship at Squaw Valley, Calif. in March.
Acura is co-sponsoring the Olympic site, while Visa is sponsoring the medal count, athlete pages and mobile coverage as well as offering discounts in the Yahoo Sports Store.
Yahoo isn't the only Web portal providing coverage of the Vancouver Olympics. With its longstanding ties to Winter Olympics broadcaster NBC Universal, MSN has claimed the title of "official U.S. online home of the 2010 Winter Olympics." Following up their partnership on the Beijing Olympics last summer, the two have again launched NBCOlympics.com on MSN, promising live video streaming and more than 1,000 hours of on-demand coverage courtesy of Microsoft's Silverlight media player.
The Silverlight player also offers related data including results, statistics, bios, and rules.
Friday, January 15, 2010
Yahoo Lets Search Marketers Import AdWords Campaigns
To help grease the wheels for new advertisers, Yahoo will announce today that paid search players will soon be able to import their Google AdWords files to run similar campaigns on Yahoo's platform. The feature will be available to its business customers in less than two weeks, according to David Pann, VP of Yahoo's search advertising division.
Campaign data that will be transferable involves mainly keywords and phrases, Pann said, while elements like geo-targeting, demographic targeting, and day-parting can be selected after the fact. He characterized the import feature as a potential accounts builder that will make it easier for Google marketers to get started on Yahoo.
Pann said advertisers have consistently expressed interest in a more streamlined way of applying their Google-based strategies on the Yahoo platform. But Yahoo may also be gearing up for the final phase to its agreement to integrate with Microsoft's adCenter platform.
According to a Microsoft spokesperson, the platform -- which includes the upstart search site, Bing -- has allowed advertisers to import Google AdWords campaigns into adCenter for two years. The Yahoo-Microsoft deal is pending approval from the U.S. Justice Department -- though most industry watchers expect it to go through sometime this year.
In the meantime, reaching out to Google advertisers appears to make perfect business sense for Yahoo. Because it's hard to fathom SEM players migrating away from Yahoo to Google -- where nearly all of them are already advertising -- due to the import feature, it looks like a move that will help encourage ad money to flow to Yahoo.
Additionally, the Sunnyvale, CA-based company's search division is set to announce a distribution feature that lets advertisers adjust their bids up or down within its network. Bids can be adjusted for Yahoo sites and its partners' sites, individually, as well as both entities at the same time. Like with the import feature, Pann said, feedback led to this development.
"It's something that our advertisers have been asking about for a couple of years now," he explained. "What it allows them to do is create a campaign, price it, target it, and put the appropriate message around it...It gives the advertisers complete control over the messaging and pricing for every click that they get in our marketplace."
Campaign data that will be transferable involves mainly keywords and phrases, Pann said, while elements like geo-targeting, demographic targeting, and day-parting can be selected after the fact. He characterized the import feature as a potential accounts builder that will make it easier for Google marketers to get started on Yahoo.
Pann said advertisers have consistently expressed interest in a more streamlined way of applying their Google-based strategies on the Yahoo platform. But Yahoo may also be gearing up for the final phase to its agreement to integrate with Microsoft's adCenter platform.
According to a Microsoft spokesperson, the platform -- which includes the upstart search site, Bing -- has allowed advertisers to import Google AdWords campaigns into adCenter for two years. The Yahoo-Microsoft deal is pending approval from the U.S. Justice Department -- though most industry watchers expect it to go through sometime this year.
In the meantime, reaching out to Google advertisers appears to make perfect business sense for Yahoo. Because it's hard to fathom SEM players migrating away from Yahoo to Google -- where nearly all of them are already advertising -- due to the import feature, it looks like a move that will help encourage ad money to flow to Yahoo.
Additionally, the Sunnyvale, CA-based company's search division is set to announce a distribution feature that lets advertisers adjust their bids up or down within its network. Bids can be adjusted for Yahoo sites and its partners' sites, individually, as well as both entities at the same time. Like with the import feature, Pann said, feedback led to this development.
"It's something that our advertisers have been asking about for a couple of years now," he explained. "What it allows them to do is create a campaign, price it, target it, and put the appropriate message around it...It gives the advertisers complete control over the messaging and pricing for every click that they get in our marketplace."
Friday, January 8, 2010
B minus for new Yahoo boss Carol Bartz
Carol Bartz, Yahoo's new chief executive, today said she would only give her first year in charge a “B minus” because of the length of time it took to strike a web search collaboration deal with Microsoft.
She also said her reorganisation of the business had been slower than hoped. Ms Bartz is struggling to keep Yahoo relevant as Google, Twitter and Facebook rule supreme.
She also said her reorganisation of the business had been slower than hoped. Ms Bartz is struggling to keep Yahoo relevant as Google, Twitter and Facebook rule supreme.
Yahoo Fidgets With Its Widgets For Television
By Ben Charny
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
LAS VEGAS (Dow Jones)--For a peek at how televisions might connect to the Internet in the future, take a look at Yahoo Inc.'s (YHOO) widget engine.
At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week, the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Internet giant announced it had signed deals to embed its technology in microprocessors made by MIPS Technologies Inc. (MIPS) and Sigma Designs Inc. (SIGM), whose products are used primarily by television manufacturers.
Yahoo's technology works like a bridge between Web sites and television screens, allowing Internet content to be rendered correctly on displays designed for living rooms rather than desktops. To make the widget engine more compelling, Yahoo has also struck deals with streaming-video aggregators Brightcove Inc. and Zeevee Inc., which offer hundreds of online video channels.
"We've opened the spigot to an endless amount of content," said Russ Schafer, a senior director who helps oversee Yahoo's widget project. Schafer said more televisions containing widget technology will hit electronics showrooms throughout the year.
Whether couch potatoes will turn on the digital tap Yahoo has created remains an open question. While the Web opens up vast archives of streaming video, manufacturers are convinced television viewers don't want to replicate the experience of using a laptop on a wall-sized television and have avoided adding features, such as Web surfing, to their products.
"I don't think anyone can seriously say they know what the next killer app is," said Scott Smyers, chairman of Digital Living Network Alliance, which represents makers of software that networks home electronics.
While consumers have expressed interest in Web-enabled televisions, what they actually use complicates the matter, industry executives say. In Singapore, the top Internet feature accessed by television is weather news even though the island nation's climate rarely changes because it is so close to the equator, said Tracy Geist, senior vice president of business development and marketing for OpenTV Corp. (OPTV), which provides software for Internet-enabled TVs.
Meanwhile, no one has figured out how best to make money from Internet features delivered over televisions. Ideas have ranged from selling ads to selling subscriptions. Yahoo is mulling a model that makes many sites free but offers premium sites at a subscription.
Yahoo is trying to push its widgets as an industry standard. At CES, the company said it was opening its developers kit--the software tools needed to make Web-based features compatible with its widget technology--to all comers. That sets the stage for distributing widgets via software bazaars such as Apple Inc.'s (AAPL) App Store, which offers free and for-pay programs for its iPhone smartphone.
Still, skepticism remains.
"We're extremely positive about the capabilities of connecting TV to cloud," said Nick Colsey, a vice president in the U.S. marketing arm of Sony Corp. (6758.TO, SNE), referring to always-accessible Internet service. "But what are those applications?"
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
LAS VEGAS (Dow Jones)--For a peek at how televisions might connect to the Internet in the future, take a look at Yahoo Inc.'s (YHOO) widget engine.
At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week, the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Internet giant announced it had signed deals to embed its technology in microprocessors made by MIPS Technologies Inc. (MIPS) and Sigma Designs Inc. (SIGM), whose products are used primarily by television manufacturers.
Yahoo's technology works like a bridge between Web sites and television screens, allowing Internet content to be rendered correctly on displays designed for living rooms rather than desktops. To make the widget engine more compelling, Yahoo has also struck deals with streaming-video aggregators Brightcove Inc. and Zeevee Inc., which offer hundreds of online video channels.
"We've opened the spigot to an endless amount of content," said Russ Schafer, a senior director who helps oversee Yahoo's widget project. Schafer said more televisions containing widget technology will hit electronics showrooms throughout the year.
Whether couch potatoes will turn on the digital tap Yahoo has created remains an open question. While the Web opens up vast archives of streaming video, manufacturers are convinced television viewers don't want to replicate the experience of using a laptop on a wall-sized television and have avoided adding features, such as Web surfing, to their products.
"I don't think anyone can seriously say they know what the next killer app is," said Scott Smyers, chairman of Digital Living Network Alliance, which represents makers of software that networks home electronics.
While consumers have expressed interest in Web-enabled televisions, what they actually use complicates the matter, industry executives say. In Singapore, the top Internet feature accessed by television is weather news even though the island nation's climate rarely changes because it is so close to the equator, said Tracy Geist, senior vice president of business development and marketing for OpenTV Corp. (OPTV), which provides software for Internet-enabled TVs.
Meanwhile, no one has figured out how best to make money from Internet features delivered over televisions. Ideas have ranged from selling ads to selling subscriptions. Yahoo is mulling a model that makes many sites free but offers premium sites at a subscription.
Yahoo is trying to push its widgets as an industry standard. At CES, the company said it was opening its developers kit--the software tools needed to make Web-based features compatible with its widget technology--to all comers. That sets the stage for distributing widgets via software bazaars such as Apple Inc.'s (AAPL) App Store, which offers free and for-pay programs for its iPhone smartphone.
Still, skepticism remains.
"We're extremely positive about the capabilities of connecting TV to cloud," said Nick Colsey, a vice president in the U.S. marketing arm of Sony Corp. (6758.TO, SNE), referring to always-accessible Internet service. "But what are those applications?"
CES: Silverman Inks Deal With Yahoo
Ben Silverman, the former NBC entertainment czar, now has his next dance partner: Yahoo.
Ben Silverman The head of NBC programming left in July to team up with IAC/InterActiveCorp for a new venture, Electus, to churn out original programming for the Web and other distribution points.
At CES today, Mr. Silverman announced the outlines of a deal with Yahoo to create original video programs for the Internet portal. The plans tie content and advertising, a hallmark of Mr. Silverman’s stints at NBC and as a producer of TV shows such as “The Office.”
Mr. Silverman and Yahoo said there’s enormous demand from advertisers for more online video programs with which to reach out to consumers. “I have no doubt: There’s a lot of demand for this,” said Joanne Bradford, Yahoo senior vice president and the company’s link to the marketing world.
One of the first Yahoo original programs, Mr. Silverman said Friday from Las Vegas, may be finance-themed, and will fit with Yahoo’s popular Yahoo Finance pages. The first wave of Web programs is expected to start by the end of March.
Yahoo has a long and complicated history with original video content deals. In 2004, it announced a much ballyhooed collaboration with former ABC executive Lloyd Braun, who left the company in 2006. More recently, the company has focused on generating less expensive original video content, including a show about celebrity fashion trends called “The Thread.”
Mr. Silverman wouldn’t give specifics about the new content, but he said top-flight people are champing at the bit to get involved with his Web video projects. “I think you’re going to see a floodgate of creative voices migrating to this platform.”
IAC and Yahoo declined to discuss financial terms of their online-programming deal, but Ms. Bradford said the two camps have agreed to split revenue.
Mr. Silverman jumped to IAC after two bumpy years at NBC that were marked by a continued slide in the network’s primetime ratings, and headlines devoted more to Mr. Silverman’s personal antics than to his programming prowess.
Mr. Silverman and Barry Diller, IAC’s chief executive, are big fans of one another. Mr. Diller had been an investor in Reveille, the independent production company Mr. Silverman ran before he took the NBC post.
Ben Silverman The head of NBC programming left in July to team up with IAC/InterActiveCorp for a new venture, Electus, to churn out original programming for the Web and other distribution points.
At CES today, Mr. Silverman announced the outlines of a deal with Yahoo to create original video programs for the Internet portal. The plans tie content and advertising, a hallmark of Mr. Silverman’s stints at NBC and as a producer of TV shows such as “The Office.”
Mr. Silverman and Yahoo said there’s enormous demand from advertisers for more online video programs with which to reach out to consumers. “I have no doubt: There’s a lot of demand for this,” said Joanne Bradford, Yahoo senior vice president and the company’s link to the marketing world.
One of the first Yahoo original programs, Mr. Silverman said Friday from Las Vegas, may be finance-themed, and will fit with Yahoo’s popular Yahoo Finance pages. The first wave of Web programs is expected to start by the end of March.
Yahoo has a long and complicated history with original video content deals. In 2004, it announced a much ballyhooed collaboration with former ABC executive Lloyd Braun, who left the company in 2006. More recently, the company has focused on generating less expensive original video content, including a show about celebrity fashion trends called “The Thread.”
Mr. Silverman wouldn’t give specifics about the new content, but he said top-flight people are champing at the bit to get involved with his Web video projects. “I think you’re going to see a floodgate of creative voices migrating to this platform.”
IAC and Yahoo declined to discuss financial terms of their online-programming deal, but Ms. Bradford said the two camps have agreed to split revenue.
Mr. Silverman jumped to IAC after two bumpy years at NBC that were marked by a continued slide in the network’s primetime ratings, and headlines devoted more to Mr. Silverman’s personal antics than to his programming prowess.
Mr. Silverman and Barry Diller, IAC’s chief executive, are big fans of one another. Mr. Diller had been an investor in Reveille, the independent production company Mr. Silverman ran before he took the NBC post.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Did Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz Grade Herself on a Curve?
Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) Carol Bartz gave herself a "B minus" when Bloomberg News asked her to grade her first year running the Internet portal. Later this month, the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company's earnings report will provide more data to test that evaluation.
The number two search company is slated to report fourth quarter and year-end results on Jan. 26. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial are forecasting earnings per share of 11 cents for the quarter, down from 17 cents a year ago, and 2009 EPS of 43 cents, compared with 46 cents. Revenue is expected to fall 10.4% to $1.23 billion in the fourth quarter and decline 13.7 percent to $4.66 billion for the year.
Shares of Yahoo, which have been crushed over the past few years, staged a comeback in 2009, gaining more than 28%. Investors were optimistic about the company's Internet search and advertising deal with Microsoft (MSFT) and its ability to compete with Google (GOOG), whose shares gained more than 84% during Bartz's tenure. Data from Experian Hitwise shows that Google accounted for 71.57% of all U.S. searches conducted in the four weeks ending Nov. 28, 2009. That's a gain of 1% compared with the previous month. Yahoo had 15.4% of the market and Microsoft's Bing platform had 9.3% of the market. Both companies lost ground to Google.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Bartz said she underestimated the challenges she faced when she took the job following co-founder Jerry Yang's disastrous tenure.
"I did move fast, but this is a big job, " Bloomberg quotes Bartz as saying.
That's an understatement. Bartz has to make Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo relevant in the age of Facebook and Twitter. Media companies still are not sure if Yahoo is a friend or an enemy as it develops more original content. Advertisers are also increasingly drawn to smaller, specialized niche sites that enable them to more easily target their marketing messages at lower costs.
Bartz has cracked the whip at Yahoo, shutting down underperforming businesses and slashing the company's workforce by 5%. Investors remain bitterly disappointed that the company failed to sell itself to Microsoft in 2008. The company has also redesigned its home page, giving it a less cluttered look. Some analysts expect Bartz to be able to bolster sales by 10 percent annually.
If she can revive Yahoo from death's door, Bartz will be hailed as a hero on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley for generations to comes. But she is nowhere near the point of success. Her one-year anniversary is next week. Yahoo's shareholders are in no mood to celebrate.
The number two search company is slated to report fourth quarter and year-end results on Jan. 26. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial are forecasting earnings per share of 11 cents for the quarter, down from 17 cents a year ago, and 2009 EPS of 43 cents, compared with 46 cents. Revenue is expected to fall 10.4% to $1.23 billion in the fourth quarter and decline 13.7 percent to $4.66 billion for the year.
Shares of Yahoo, which have been crushed over the past few years, staged a comeback in 2009, gaining more than 28%. Investors were optimistic about the company's Internet search and advertising deal with Microsoft (MSFT) and its ability to compete with Google (GOOG), whose shares gained more than 84% during Bartz's tenure. Data from Experian Hitwise shows that Google accounted for 71.57% of all U.S. searches conducted in the four weeks ending Nov. 28, 2009. That's a gain of 1% compared with the previous month. Yahoo had 15.4% of the market and Microsoft's Bing platform had 9.3% of the market. Both companies lost ground to Google.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Bartz said she underestimated the challenges she faced when she took the job following co-founder Jerry Yang's disastrous tenure.
"I did move fast, but this is a big job, " Bloomberg quotes Bartz as saying.
That's an understatement. Bartz has to make Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo relevant in the age of Facebook and Twitter. Media companies still are not sure if Yahoo is a friend or an enemy as it develops more original content. Advertisers are also increasingly drawn to smaller, specialized niche sites that enable them to more easily target their marketing messages at lower costs.
Bartz has cracked the whip at Yahoo, shutting down underperforming businesses and slashing the company's workforce by 5%. Investors remain bitterly disappointed that the company failed to sell itself to Microsoft in 2008. The company has also redesigned its home page, giving it a less cluttered look. Some analysts expect Bartz to be able to bolster sales by 10 percent annually.
If she can revive Yahoo from death's door, Bartz will be hailed as a hero on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley for generations to comes. But she is nowhere near the point of success. Her one-year anniversary is next week. Yahoo's shareholders are in no mood to celebrate.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Display Ad Recovery Bodes Well For Yahoo: Analysts Cite Auto, Finance, 'Price Integrity'
Reiterating an "overweight" buying recommendation for shares of Yahoo stock, the influential securities research team at JP Morgan this morning issued a report to investors suggesting that an imminent recovery in the online display advertising marketplace could be the "catalyst" for a rebound at the online portal giant.
"In 2009, one of the hardest hit Internet sectors has been display advertising. At Yahoo, owned-and-operated display advertising revenues were down 12% in the first three quarters of 2009 and accounted for roughly 25% of gross revenue in third quarter (and a substantially higher percentage of profitability). Thus, we think a recovery in display advertising dollars could be a catalyst for Yahoo's stock," the analysts wrote, noting that positive signs are mounting, including an improvement in key vertical ad categories, such as automotive and finance, which account for roughly 25% of Yahoo's online advertising revenue.
"Revenue from those two verticals was down more than 15% during the first nine months," the researchers noted, adding, "However, based on our industry checks, we think auto and finance advertisement trends are improving in the fourth quarter. Additionally we think the comps are getting easier. Therefore we think our owned and operated display advertising estimate for 1.5% growth in fiscal 2010 could be too conservative."
Another positive sign for Yahoo is the fact that big premium publishers are shifting their focus to "price integrity," which JPMorgan said should help bolster Yahoo's display advertising business, as well. Specifically, the analysts cited Time Warner's spin-off of AOL, and reports that CBS plans to discontinue selling its premium online ad inventory via third-party ad networks.
"We believe these moves by larger publishers will improve price integrity for the display advertising market as a whole," the analysts wrote. "Considering Yahoo is the largest display ad publisher, we see it as a likely beneficiary of pricing improvements."
"In 2009, one of the hardest hit Internet sectors has been display advertising. At Yahoo, owned-and-operated display advertising revenues were down 12% in the first three quarters of 2009 and accounted for roughly 25% of gross revenue in third quarter (and a substantially higher percentage of profitability). Thus, we think a recovery in display advertising dollars could be a catalyst for Yahoo's stock," the analysts wrote, noting that positive signs are mounting, including an improvement in key vertical ad categories, such as automotive and finance, which account for roughly 25% of Yahoo's online advertising revenue.
"Revenue from those two verticals was down more than 15% during the first nine months," the researchers noted, adding, "However, based on our industry checks, we think auto and finance advertisement trends are improving in the fourth quarter. Additionally we think the comps are getting easier. Therefore we think our owned and operated display advertising estimate for 1.5% growth in fiscal 2010 could be too conservative."
Another positive sign for Yahoo is the fact that big premium publishers are shifting their focus to "price integrity," which JPMorgan said should help bolster Yahoo's display advertising business, as well. Specifically, the analysts cited Time Warner's spin-off of AOL, and reports that CBS plans to discontinue selling its premium online ad inventory via third-party ad networks.
"We believe these moves by larger publishers will improve price integrity for the display advertising market as a whole," the analysts wrote. "Considering Yahoo is the largest display ad publisher, we see it as a likely beneficiary of pricing improvements."
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