AFI BLOG: Media and Technology

Advertising Age
As founding partner of Velocity Interactive Group, former AOL chairman and CEO Jonathan Miller has become very involved in the “mashing” of online video ads. At yesterday’s OMMA video conference, he cited the exploding traffic of Velocity’s Mixercast.com. It allows users to legally mash — or mix together — parts of various marketers’ video [...]

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TechCrunch
With Microsoft walking away from the Yahoo deal, there’s been a lot of talk about what it’s next best option would be. Going after AOL is an obvious choice. It has the ad inventory (aka pageviews) Microsoft needs, has its own collection of growing online advertising businesses, and has a very willing seller in parent [...]

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Red Herring
AOL, continuing its campaign to transform from internet service provider ugly duckling to advertising network swan, has acquired contextual search firm Sphere, the companies announced Tuesday.
Financial terms were not disclosed. Shares of Time Warner, the parent of AOL, edged up $.02, or .1 percent, to $14.19 in early afternoon trading.
Three-year-old Sphere was backed by [...]

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The Wall Street Journal
Murdoch, Microsoft Consider Joint Bid; Google Ad Pact
Yahoo Inc. and Time Warner Inc.’s AOL are closing in on a deal to combine their Internet operations, a move aimed at thwarting Microsoft Corp.’s effort to acquire Yahoo, people familiar with the matter said Wednesday.
But Microsoft is recrafting its assault plan by talking with [...]

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Everywhere and nowhere - The Economist.com
Social networking will become a ubiquitous feature of online life. That does not mean it is a business
A LARGE but long-in-the-tooth technology company hoping to become a bigger force in online advertising buys a small start-up in a sector that everybody agrees is the next big thing. A decade ago, [...]

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Dead Man Walking - Fast Company
On the verge of a revival last year, AOL suddenly imploded. The inside story of a journey to nowhere.
In May 2007, nearly six months after he was hired, AOL chief executive Randy Falco gathered his employees together for an “all hands” meeting at the company’s Dulles, Virginia, headquarters. Until then, [...]

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AOL to Buy Bebo for $850 Million - Advertising Age
Social-Networking Site Could Help Once-Dominant Portal Regain Status
Amid a slew of executive departures, AOL put out some good news this morning: It is acquiring social network Bebo for $850 million.
The move is the latest in a string of midsize acquisitions for the Time Warner-owned portal over [...]

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AOL Goes Open With AIM - paidContent.org
AOL has opened up its AIM messaging client, the biggest in the market, to third party developers, after years of trying to stave them off. Now services like Meebo or all-in-one IM clients like Trillian or Pidgin, can plug into the AIM service without resorting to hacks. Until now, [...]

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AOL Acquires Widget Technology Company Goowy Media, Inc. - Press Release
AOL today announced that it has acquired Goowy Media, Inc., a widget development and analytics tools company based in San Diego, Calif. Goowy will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of AOL as part of the company’s Products division.
Founded in 2004, Goowy offers a technology [...]

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Seeking Alpha blog

Fascinating post today by Henry Blodget on Silicon Alley Insider asking whether Google (GOOG) will soon force Time Warner (TWX) to take AOL public.
As Blodget notes, Google in December 2005 spent $1 billion for a 5% stake in AOL. Terms of the deal say that starting July 1, 2008, Google has the right [...]

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