Yahoo! CEO Thompson Pushed Out; Google Buying Meebo?; ValueClick Has A Video Ad Platform

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign-up here.

Yahoo! Removes Thompson

It’s official: Scott Thompson has been removed as CEO of Yahoo!. According to a release, the new interim CEO will be Ross Levinsohn. Activist investor Daniel Loeb was a winner, too, as his picks for the Yahoo! board will be installed sooner rather than later: “Under the Board’s settlement agreement with [Daniel Loeb’s] Third Point, three Third Point nominees – Daniel S. Loeb, Harry J. Wilson, and Michael J. Wolf – will join the Yahoo! Board, effective May 16, 2012. ” Read it. Kara Swisher at All Things D broke the news saying that Scott Thompson had been pushed out as CEO following the disclosure that his academic credentials had been partially falsified. Read more. Can you imagine another Yahoo! CEO search? What happens next?

Levinsohn Reaction

Meanwhile, the kudos pour in for Levinsohn who many hope will lose the “interim” in his new title. Yahoo! interclick CEO Michael Katz says of his new boss in a tweet, “could not be happier for @rosslevinsohn and for Yahoo as the news becomes official. Y! could not possibly be in better hands.” From Steven Rosenbaum at Forbes, “And while Scott Thompson – the now ousted CEO – was famous for saying that he didn’t much understand advertising or media, Levinsohn understands both. And he’s careful not to over promise and under deliver.” Read it. COO Craig Atkinson of Omnicom Group tells The Wall Street Journal that “Levinsohn was a ‘known quantity’ who has made progress in developing Yahoo’s credibility as a next-generation media company. He cited the company’s ‘strong showing’ at its recent ‘Newfront’ event in which it unveiled its new slate of Web shows for advertisers.” Read more (subscription).

Google Buying Meebo?

All Things D’s Liz Gannes says that her sources tell her Google will acquire Meebo for $100 million or so. Read more. As you may recall, toolbar maker Meebo acquired psychographic targeter Mindset Media for an undisclosed sum in early 2011. So why buy? I’ll toss out there that this is potentially about finding more solutions for brand advertisers and speaks to a templated, branded entertainment capability that leverages the data gathered through Meebo’s toolbar (which is tracking users and measuring engagement). This solution could also leverage “interest” data that is gathered across the network of AdSense publishers as well as fill/extend the AdSense inventory itself. Scale for the big brand is a big deal. See Meebo.com. Or, maybe it’s an acqui-hire?

Social Is For Brands

Former Microsoft Atlas “Engagement Mapping” (attribution) guru Young-Bean Song is not sold on the social search update coming to Bing and provided a comment on social ads, in general, as MediaPost’s Laurie Sullivan paraphrased: “Song said when companies run traditional campaigns in social media, they are almost always disappointed because it’s not a channel for buying and selling products. Facebook will not become a great engine for commerce or direct-response, but rather, branding.” D.R. mavens would likely dispute this saying – at the very least – FB will be a great vehicle for D.R., too. Read more.

The Video Ad Platform

Poof! ValueClick has a video ad platform. The company announced last week that it was “beefing” up its video product line as it looks to leverage its ad network and access to other exchange-like video ad inventory sources. Oh, and its leveraging its data, too. According to the release, “ValueClick Video advertisers receive exclusive access to 212MM unique online user profiles and $6.7B in transactional data to pinpoint the ideal audience from display, to smartphones and tablet devices.” Read more. To spearhead the efforts, the company said former Adconion Direct exec Dan Alexander has become director of video strategy. See demos.

CMO Target

James Rogers covers last week’s IBM investors meeting on TheStreet.com. Rogers paraphrases IBM CEO Ginni Rommety: “Rometty also promised continued aggressive investment in R&D, an area where IBM has spent $70 billion over the last 10 years. Additionally, the CEO said that IBM wants to expand its client base beyond the traditional CIOs to CFOs, Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs), risk officers, supply chain managers and public sector leaders such as police chiefs and mayors.” Read more on IBM plans.

Transformer Publisher

On Digiday, Josh Sternberg profiles The Atlantic Media Company and its transformation from a print publication to a digital publication whose traffic swamps the print rage by 25x. The Atlantic’s president Justin Smith tells Sternberg, “We decided that we wanted to be a digital media company participating in the high-growth markets and digital media. We went about the process of thinking through the questions, how do we disrupt our own company if we were challenging digital brands attacking us?” Read more about the disruption.

Two For The Price Of One

Improve Digital updated their European ad ecosystem map with a tip of the cap to LUMA Parnters Terence Kawaja’s map. See the improved Improve map. But that’s not all- see the new 10-minute video on real-time advertising created in partnership with MediaMath. View now.
New Website

Dentsu-owned Net Mining has launched a new website – see it now!

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