Google got MySpace, but Microsoft gets FaceBook. We know why Microsoft went after FaceBook, but why did FaceBook say yes? Facebook COO Owen Van Natta says that Microsoft’s technology and approach are a better fit because they are newer to online advertising than Google and Yahoo and its technology doesn’t have to be “retrofitted” to
Now that Sony Pictures Entertainment has gone in for online video site Grouper in a $65-million-dollar deal, the obvious question becomes: Who’s next? (NYT DealBook) • Go to Article from BusinessWeek • Go to Article from The Deal.com • Go to Article from MarketWatch I wrote last week, Comcast acquires YouTube? which I still think
Actually, Washington Post just did. Jeff Burkett writes: washingtonpost.com BlogRoll Program Launched. Jeff’s instincts are right. There are bloggers with high quality content who would be willing to share ad revenues with the Post in exchange for serious traffic. Steve Rubel applauds the effort, and offers some suggestions on how to go beyond a wimpy
There are a number of articles on YouTube today: TechCrunch, GigaOm, PaidContent, along with a comparison from LightReading on video sharing sites. The business model question on YouTube continues to come up, people assuming that they will eventually monetize the eyeballs. YouTube could also become the empowering engine for VideoSharing for various sites like TimeWarner,
A smart little acquisition occured today. AOL bought an Instant Messaging service that powers, among others, MySpace. Userplane licenses its technology to more than 100,000 sites. I really like plays like this that power thousands of web sites. Photobucket is an example of a similar play, that acts as a repository for photos that can
Check out Yelp Mobile. In the growing trend of User Generated content, the Review market is one that many are eyeing. Yahoo has had movie reviews for a long time. Google is starting to pull in Yelp type reviews into their Google Local site. Now, Palm has done a deal with Yelp to put them
Viacom buys Atom, adding this to their other recent purchases, XFIRE, Y2M, GameTrailers.com, IFILM and Neopets, placing them all under MTV Networks. Atom has very interesting short films and gaming properties, but none of the sizzle and growth rate of YouTube, for example. The one thing still missing from their portfolio is a MySpace-like social
Google + MySpace = ~ 1 Billion Dollar deal. MySpace already makes $350 Million a year in revenues, but a Google deal will add a great deal of structure to their advertising. Of course, this just pushed the valuations of FaceBook and YouTube up another notch as well. Some exits are in the wings for