Marketing Pilgrim

By Sean Maguire

Jerry Yang must be thinking “surely this is a bad dream”, as he runs around like Captain Ahab (as best he can since he’s also standing on one leg), shouting out commands as the Great White Whale charges the ship.

Yesterday, Yang completed a rare “three-peat” in a letter to his underlings (yings):

One for the money

“I’d ask all of you to stay focused on the business at hand and what we do best — transforming the experiences of our users, advertisers, publishers and developers, all while enhancing our leadership position in the online marketplace.”

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Carl Icahn is a powerful and extremely rich man. Companies that count him as a shareholder likely quake in their boots anytime he has something to say. However, Yahoo’s board is not impressed with Icahn’s threats to replace the board members with a selection of his own.

In their public reply to Icahn, Yahoo’s Chairman of the Board Roy Bostock pretty much tells him to go take a long walk off a short pier.

A fair-minded review of the factual record leads to one conclusion: that Yahoo!’s ten-member board, comprised of nine independent directors along with Yahoo! CEO Jerry Yang, remains the best and most qualified group to maximize value for all Yahoo! stockholders.

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Do you know how illusionists make that cute bunny disappear? They distract your eyes with something else, so you don’t notice what’s going on.

Cue Yahoo “Copperfield” with its attempt to make Carl Icahn disappear by distracting you with the good news about a partnership it just formed with mega-ad agency WPP.

In a statement, the companies said that as part of the deal, WPP advertising agencies would, through its 24/7 Real Media arm, develop a proprietary advertising media trading platform that takes advantage of Yahoo’s Right Media exchange.

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Facebook was onboard with Google’s new Friend Connect - until they looked a little closer at how the technology works. Then they suspended Google’s access to Facebook.

On the Facebook Developer’s blog post “Thoughts on Privacy” it says:

We’ve found that it [Google Friend Connect] redistributes user information from Facebook to other developers without users’ knowledge, which doesn’t respect the privacy standards our users have come to expect and is a violation of our Terms of Service.

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Ahhh. The time killing game of beer pong. For those of you who have never played beer pong (or have so severely lost that you no longer remember playing), this is truly a game of wit and fortitude.

All you need to play is a ping pong ball, plenty of beer, and a few cups. Team up, take turns throwing the ping pong ball at your opponents cups (filled with beer of course), and every time you land in the cup the opposing team drinks the beer.

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Today is the date that Gunnar Andersgaard first set foot on the soil of Dortugal.

What do you mean, I made that up? Hey, look, linky goodness!

• Icahn really does haz Yahoo Board: Search Engine Land and SearchEngineWatch take a look at his statement and Yahoo’s response.
• Today is rollout day for Yahoo’s Search Monkey. The official announcement includes a . . . CHALLENGE?!
• How would you feel if your ISP announced it would deliver targeted ads to you by monitoring your user activity? Oh, that’s totally cool. NOT.

Hot on the heels of yesterday’s “buzz targeting” advertising announcement from YouTube, the video hosting service has another feature announcement. Back in March, YouTube began offering free stats to video owners about the popularity of their videos. Today, Google has announced that YouTube’s analytics are adding a new layer of meaning for video owners: demographic information.

YouTube’s analytics program, Insight, originally featured information on:

• how many people have viewed your video
• what day of the week you get the most views
• where people live who are watching your video
• insight into popularity of your video

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In internet marketing circles, there are a handful of names that pretty much everyone should recognize; Danny Sullivan, Dr. Ralph Wilson, and Larry Chase are among them.

What? You’ve never heard of Larry Chase?

That might be understandable, if you only ever get your marketing insight via blogs–Larry Chase doesn’t have a blog. But, if you’re open to receiving an old-fashioned email newsletter, then you’ll find weekly treats and advice in his weekly Web Digest For Marketers publication.

In particular, you’d know the 12 hottest internet marketing trends for the next 3 years, which include:

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Here’s a riddle for you. How many employees does it take to grow Ask.com’s audience by 11%?

Answer: Apparently just 20.

It’s no joke! Ask.com has just announced it will acquire Lexico, owners of Dictionary.com and Thesaurus.com, in a move that will increase its audience by a whopping 11%.

Lexico has just 20 employees!

No financial terms have been released, but seeing as Lexico had been in talks with Answers.com for $100 million–the deal fell through last year–we suspect it to be in the same price range.

So, what are the integration plans?

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While I’m pretty confident why CBS is acquiring CNET, I’m stumped when it comes to why Comcast is acquiring Plaxo.

The Plaxo blog tells us…

Comcast has an exciting vision to bring the social media experience to mainstream consumers. Together, we will be able to help users connect with all the people they care about, across all of the devices they use, with all the media they love to consume, create, and share.

But all I hear is the loud sound of the chart below–showing that perhaps Plaxo just wanted to sell before it became the latest contestant on Dancing With the Stars. That is where the washed-up stars end-up, right?

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CBS is paying a 45% premium in order to buy CNET for $1.8 billion!

Why?

Why would they offer up a 45% premium for a company that’s seen its stock slump recently? Let’s speculate shall we?

1. CBS had money burning a hole in its pocket.
2. CNET had more than one suitor, so enjoyed a behind the scenes bidding war.
3. CBS wanted to offer enough of a premium to satisfy its grumbling investors.

My vote is on option 3–with maybe a little of option 1. CBS will clearly benefit from CNET’s vast footprint in online media, but I believe the premium is likely an attempt to avoid any conflict with CNET’s dissenting investors.

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By Sean Maguire

Standing strong at number 24 on Forbes list of the 400 Richest Americans, with a cool $8.7 Billion to his name, Carl Icahn can haz lots of cheezburgerz! Guess what? He wants more.

Oh, the intrigue; the recent breathtaking game of “Deal or No Deal” between Microsoft and Yahoo. Unless you’ve been rafting down the Bolivian mountains’ Tuichi River for the last three months, you’re well aware of Jerry Yang and Co’s, repeated rejections of Microsoft’s increasingly generous overtures. The last one being a lofty (cough cough) - $33.00/share or $47.5 Billion dollars! This represented a full 70% premium over Yahoo’s closing price of $19.18 on January 31. With Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer playing the role of Howie Mandel, Yang sent two of his yings to politely tell him “No Deal Stevie…No Deal”!

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