AFI BLOG: Media and Technology

BusinessWeek
Moving past the Yahoo saga, the software giant is buying semantic search engine Powerset as a way of closing the gap with Google
Still smarting from a failed attempt to buy Yahoo! (YHOO), Microsoft (MSFT) is trying another tactic to gain on Google (GOOG) in Web search.
Microsoft is buying Powerset, developer of what it hopes is [...]

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Silicon Alley Insider
We like Terry Semel. He was friendly to us in the brief period in which our Yahoo-Analyst / Yahoo-CEO careers overlapped. As Yahoo shareholders, we also enjoyed Terry’s early years as CEO, when Yahoo worked its way through its post-bubble collapse and the stock jumped about 7X. So we will begin this brief [...]

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paidContent.org
Terry Semel, the former CEO of Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO), may be looking at going back to his Hollywood roots for good: he plans to make a run at acquiring IMG, the sports marketing and entertainment talent agency, reports NYP, citing sources. Semel now runs an investment firm Windsor Media, and earlier this year reports surfaced [...]

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Alley Insider

They might be distracted, but Yahoo’s video sales team is open for business. Rebecca Paoletti, director of video strategy, says sales are brisk. It’s the third year that Yahoo (YHOO) has held video sales talks with advertisers in parallel with TV’s “upfront” sales season.
Meetings with advertisers started this week, and Paoletti said judging from [...]

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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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The Wall Street Journal
Software Giant Cites Divide Over Price; The Google Factor
Yahoo Inc. Chief Executive Jerry Yang didn’t really want Microsoft Corp. to buy his company. By Saturday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer didn’t want that either, leaving both technology giants facing fundamental questions about their futures.
The failed courtship leaves Microsoft with limited options for quickly [...]

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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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NewTeeVee
Yahoo has discontinued production of its viral video roundup show The 9. The show’s final episode aired on Monday. Neeraj Khemlani, Yahoo’s head of programming, downplayed the change when we talked to him late Wednesday, contending The 9 had seen surprising longevity. “Two years in Internet time is All in the Family.”
Speaking perhaps to the [...]

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paidContent.org
Yahoo Media Group has done some additional streamlining with its organization here in Santa Monica, under Scott Moore, who took over in December last year. The changes, from the memo send out by Moore:
– The Entertainment group, under Karin Gilford, will now include Kids, Food and Astrology (the last one is now part of Shine, [...]

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Yahoo To Join OpenSocial in April, Microsoft Groans. - TechCrunch
Following previous reports that Yahoo is talking to Google about joining OpenSocial, we are now hearing that the decision has been made and that it will be announced in April. OpenSocial is Google’s social-networking platform that is a response to Facebook. Yahoo has been sitting on [...]

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