Yahoo Bids Are Coming In; Ad Fraud Refunds Examined

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Yahoo Bids Roll In

Anonymous sources provide some details to Bloomberg on Yahoo’s suitors. Some companies that were floated as likely bidders early on, including Comcast, AT&T and Microsoft, have backed out of contention. Verizon, though, is expected to make its bid next week, and it will face a wide array of competitors: Google, Time Inc. and private equity turnaround artists like Bain and TPG are all rumored to be angling. Despite its drawbacks, Yahoo is the last true search/email/content giant one can expect to go on the market. Verizon could use it to solidify the position it acquired with AOL, or Google could juice its overall search market share, which has slipped incrementally in recent years. More.

Victims Of Fraud

An Ad Age article examines whether refunds will overcome buyer concerns about ad fraud. DataXu and TubeMogul are among the buy-side companies offering them today. TubeMogul CMO Keith Eadie describes his company’s money-back guarantee as “an operational burden.” But! He says, “It is the right thing to do. We want to remove fraud as a concern for everyone who uses our platform.” More.

A Brave Challenge

Seventeen newspapers signed a cease-and-desist letter against Brave, the web browser with ad blocking built into it. Built by former Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich, the browser strips out a publisher’s ads and replaces them with ads it deems acceptable. Publishers keep 55% of the revenue. Brave, the tech partner and the user split the rest. The newspapers, who are part of the Newspaper Association of America, are seeking $150,000 for each piece of content Brave monetizes itself. In response, Brave said “This NAA letter is the first shot in a war on all ad blockers, not just on Brave.” Read on.

Pinterest Acq-hire

Pinterest is in talks to bring on talent from URX, a mobile start-up with expertise in deep linking, according to Re/code. Since its launch in 2013, URX has raised $15 million over four rounds. The talent acquisition could help fill out Pinterest’s somewhat bare cupboard of ad-buying tools, although URX faces stifling competition from mobile giants like Apple and Google, which have accelerated their own app-linking capabilities. More.

But Wait, There’s More!