Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign-up here.
Rubicon Project And FAN Edge Closer
As first reported on AdExchanger.com, Rubicon Project is closer to acquiring Fox Audience Network assets as All Things D’s Kara Swisher reports that MySpace will take a “significant minority investment” in Rubicon Project as a result. She adds, “Under the deal terms, which is nearly complete with a signed term sheet, MySpace will hand over a number of parts of FAN, including most of its 300 employees.” Read more. It’s interesting to note that “MySpace” is said to have the stake rather than News Corp. Perhaps it’s reading to much into the phrasing, but MySpace may be on its way out of News Corp and will offer its Rubicon Project stake as part of its assets.
NetShelter Gets $15 Million For Verticals
The vertical or niche website business is on fyuh. Last week, Internet Brands was bought for $680 million. This week, NetShelter announced that it has receive $15 million in financing “led by Rho Ventures, with participation by existing investors Rho Canada and JLA Ventures.” CEO Peyman Nilforoush tells VentureBeat, “The most important thing about those sites isn’t the number of eyeballs they draw — it’s the fact that they’re highly influential in their particular product area, making their readers a good target for compelling, customized advertising campaigns.” Audience! Read more from VentureBeat.
More Google Display Outlook
Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney offered his take on Google’s display advertising potential in the coming quarter in a note to research clients yesterday: “Increasing Materiality Of Mobile, Display and YouTube – Q2 results & intra-quarter dpoints give us increased conviction that GOOG will exit ‘10 with $1B – $2B Revenue run rate from Display Advertising Network, YouTube & Mobile Search. Key, these sources will likely have a sustained impact on GOOG’s revenue growth, plausibly leading to an ‘11 growth rate faster than Street expectations.”
Earlier this month, advertising technology company MediaMind announced version 2.0 of its digital ad platform services. During a company-sponsored conference last week, Adotas’ Gavin Dunaway quotes a company rep as suggesting what’s in the media mind: ““The data needs to be at the center. If you pour data out on the whole ecosystem, you’re going to lose some.” Read more on the mind.
More UK Expansion For Platforms
Video advertising platform Auditude (AdExchanger.com Q&A) announced that it is expanding into the UK as the company announced its inaugural partnership “UK broadcaster Channel Five, to manage and serve its online video advertising.” Auditude will monetize Channel Five’s on-demand video. Read the release.
More Mobile
MyBuys (AdExchanger.com Q&A) is extending its offering to the mobile space and announced what it calls a “personalized, mobile e-commerce solution.” Read the release. Meanwhile, ad serving technology company ZEDO said that it is targeting iPhone ad delivery and announced on the company blog: “We’ve built an ad tag that works in iPhone apps!” Read more.
Expanding Throughout The Globe
Adnetik continues to beat the drum as its new services are expanding globally. From a press release: “[Adnetik] is now operating in five countries including the United States, United Kingdom, Mexico, the Netherlands and Brazil. In addition, the company plans to continue its expansion plans into Europe via a new office located in Madrid, Spain, during the month of October.” Read more.
Flash Cookie Controversy
Bizo CEO Russ Glass weighs in on the Flash cookie controversy on min Online. Glass thinks the litmus test for user tracking should be 100% transparency and controls for the end user – and Flash cookies currently fail in this regard. He adds, “Users need to be able to understand what types of cookies are stored in their browsers and have the ability to opt-out of cookies if they so desire. Currently Flash cookies simply do not provide users with this prerequisite level of transparency or control.” Read more.
TechCrunch Officially Acquired
It’s official. Popular technology blog, TechCrunch, has been acquired by Aol. On the TechCrunch blog, Aol CEO Tim Armstrong writes briefly, “I’m very pleased to announce that we have acquired TechCrunch. (…) This is a great complement to our continued investment in world class content.” Read the release. Acquisition price rumors range between $25 and $40 million according to The Business Insider.
Web Makeover
Data exchange BlueKai has given a makeover to its website which includes the industry’s first data visualization of live intent data. See it now!
