Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign-up here.
Google Acquires All Travel Intenders For $700 Million
Google is about to get its hands on travel search data as it announced the acquisition (for $700 million in cash) yesterday of ITA, a critical provider of search software to the airline industry for online ticketing. Google CEO Eric Schmidt said in the release, “[ITA’s] technology opens exciting possibilities for us to create new ways for users to more easily find flight information online, and we’re looking forward to welcoming them to Google.” On the Official Google blog, VP Marissa Mayer added that once the acquisition closes, “We’ll work on creating new flight search tools that will make it easier for you to search for flights, compare flight options and prices and get you quickly to a site where you can buy your ticket.” Obviously, there is huge potential here for advertising and marketing which has already been unlocked to a degree, but now Google will dig even deeper. Read the Google blog. Meanwhile, The Business Insider wonders if Kayak has been “kneecapped.”
Adometry Announces Product Update
Ad verification company Adometry announced an update to its tools and services yesterday. Adometry CEO Jim Ewel told AdExchanger.com, “This is a significant product release given the newly released IAB guidelines. To our knowledge, this is the first product designed to help Networks and Exchanges get ready for the certification described in the guidelines.” Read the release.
ComScore Gets Mobile
ComScore said yesterday that it is beefing up its mobile practice and addressing network operators and their clients as it acquired Nexius – “a mobile carrier-grade solutions that deliver network analysis focused on the experience of wireless subscribers, as well as network intelligence with respect to performance, capacity and configuration analytics.” Read the release.
IPOs Still Struggling
Other than the lead gen industry whose IPOs have been largely flat, IPOs still remain few and far between. Inc.com’s Matt Quinn looks at the challenges and even the bright side, “The second quarter was the strongest in terms of venture-backed IPO volume since the fourth quarter of 2007.” Read more.
Zucker Hired By The Shah
Bennett Zucker, whose track record indicates he may be the leprechaun in charge of the rainbow for having worked at Right Media Exchange (acquired by Yahoo!), Tacoda (acquired by AOL) and Acerno (acquired by Akamai), has been hired by Vivek Shah of Ziff Davis. Zucker will assume the role of SVP/GM of Data Solutions. So far, Ziff Davis has not been acquired. Read more.
Netezza On MediaMath
Netezza has released a case study featuring its client and demand-side platform MediaMath. (Download the PDF) MediaMath CTO Roland Cozzolino says in the study, “Without Netezza, MediaMath could not view 30 days of data at once. ‘Now we can look at, for example, what happened 12 months ago and see how it relates to today.” Read more.
Here Comes The Paywall
Marketing Week says that News International will put the web versions of the UK’s Times and Sunday Times behind a paywall effective today. Marketing Week adds, “As an introductory offer, all customers that register for the sites will get access to both sites for a one-off charge of £1 for the first 30 days.” Read more. (source: @exchangewire)
Huffington Post Is Social
In an interview with Ad Age’s Abbey Klassen, Huffington Post CRO Greg Coleman positions the company as something other than a news site: “First and foremost, we are positioning ourselves as a social-media company, meaning that all of the great and powerful social marketing tools that have made the Huffington Post grow right now to 24 million unique visitors, we can now use those tools to help our marketers beam their messages throughout the internet, across the galaxy, the internet, and the world.” Read more.
Publicis Says Ads ‘Seriously Up’
According to Bloomberg Busineessweek, Maurice Levy sees an economic turnaround. In an interview, Levy says, “Last year everyone was depressed and not thinking about how to grow, but how to cut expenses. Clients’ spending this year is more about catching up with what they lost last year.” Read about who’s spending.
You’re Promoted! – or – You’re Hired!
At WPP Group’s 24/7 Real Media, Nicolle Pangis has been promoted to SVP (was VP) of Global Product Management where she’ll be “responsible for the overall health and growth of 24/7 Real Media’s global media and technology businesses.” Read the release. Meanwhile tag container technology company, TagMan, announced the hiring of Wendy Zenchyshyn and Aaron Gragg “as VPs to lead business development and sales, respectively. Read more in PaidContent.
Google Gets French Kiss
French regulators have warned Google about transpareny needed through its AdWords program according to an article in MediaPost. According to Google in The Wall Street Journal, a French company which allegedly helps provide information on avoiding speeding tickets had their AdWords account suspended without notice after Google changed its policy to not allow companies to advertise on Google when they are trying to help people break the law. Read more on The Wall Street Journal.
Sprout In DoubleClick
Brand engagement platform Sprout (AdExchanger.com Q&A) announced that its platform has been integrated into DoubleClick Studio. According to the release, “The integration makes it easy for creative teams to develop ads in Sprout’s visual authoring studio and then use DoubleClick Studio to manage their workflow and submit creatives to DoubleClick’s ad serving products (DFA and DFP).” Read more.
