Yahoo! Acquires BlueLithium
The word is out. BlueLithium which is the fifth largest online advertising network has officially been acquired by Yahoo for a hefty $300 million.
This acquisition is aimed at assisting Yahoo in attracting direct response marketers. Senior vice president of Yahoo publisher network, Todd Teresi was quoted in Advertising Age to state that the acquisition is part of “our strategy of leading a transformation in how advertisers connect with publishers.”
Acquiring BlueLithium is not the move Yahoo has taken to reinvent itself. The purchase of Right Media earlier this year signaled the first step taken to reorganize the company.
While Yahoo usually appeals to brand marketers that are traditionally focused on engagement and brand lift, conversion is the concentration of the firm right now. This comes at a time when one of the company’s major competitors, Google is focusing on brand advertisers, in an exchange of roles by the firms.
Blue Lithium launched in 2004 and will have access to Yahoo Publisher Network inventory and inventories owned and operated by Yahoo as well as add its inventory to the Right Media Exchange.
Analyst’s reactions have been fairly positive. Many believe that the deal will bring positive growth to the company. Thomas Wiesel analyst Christa Quarles was quoted in Zdnet to say “We believe BlueLithium brings three things to Yahoo!: (1) Scale in its ad network business; (2) strong behavioral targeting technology; and (3) a string international presence. BlueLithium is expected to become a part of the Right Media exchange upon completion of the acquisition (though Yahoo! has already been working with BlueLithium on its own remnant inventory)…We believe BlueLithium may not be the last ad network that Yahoo! Consolidates in its quest for scale. In addition, while BlueLithium relies heavily on cookie data, the combination of search data and cookies could hasten the improvements in monetization on Yahoo! Remnant inventory.”
Imran Khan, analyst for J.P. Morgan stated, “We believe BlueLithium will further improve Yahoo’s monetization of display advertising. We believe advertisers will pay higher CPMs for responsive targeted ads. We think that, in addition to Right Media, Blue Lithium’s adPath technology will help further monetize remnant inventory.”
Yahoo has also seen a shakeup in management. With the exit of Terry Semel and the re-entrance of Yahoo founder Jerry Yang, numerous executives have taken their cue to leave the company while Yang plans and executes an overhaul to the search giant. Susan L. Decker being appointed president was one of Yang’s first changes to bring the right people into the right positions in the company to propel it forward into a new renaissance in the coming years.
Teresi continued to say of the partnership “Our ability to drive accelerated revenue growth will rise from our ability to give salespeople…extensions of audiences and aggregated audiences. That’s the tool for No. 1 market share.”
Reader Comments.
This is an interesting decision considering that Right Media has the REMIX Ad Network, which competes directly with Blue Lithium.
Also, the decision not to acquire one of the networks using the Right Media system that have comparible revenue and assets is a strong statement.
Leave a Comment
Article Sponsor
More Features
-
Loading ...
Latest News
- Hulu’s Bringing Its “A” Game But… March 19th 2010 ADOTAS – Hulu’s sales team is actively subverting the ad [...] more »
- Yelp! A class-action suit? March 19th 2010 ADOTAS – One of three civil suits against Yelp filed [...] more »
- Viacom Accuses Google; Testing Digital Millennium Copyright Act March 19th 2010 Viacom has accused Google of turning a blind eye to [...] more »
- Google to Leave China April 10th? March 19th 2010 ADOTAS – According to the China Business News, Google Inc [...] more »
- [x+1] Creates The Smartest Tagging System Around March 18th 2010 ADOTAS – Today, if you happen to be at the [...] more »
- IAB’s Video Standards Tackled By ADTECH March 18th 2010 ADOTAS – ADTECH, a part of AOL Advertising and an [...] more »
- Google Search and Mobile and….TV? Oh My! March 18th 2010 ADOTAS – Google wants to dominate your screens…. Not just [...] more »
Features
- Growing Pains March 19th 2010
- For Better or For Worse? March 18th 2010
- Yahoo! Wants to Get More Personal March 17th 2010
- Creative Considerations for the iPad March 16th 2010
- Amazon Leaves Colorado Affiliates Out in the Cold March 12th 2010
Spotlight
AdBidCentral’s CEO, Vivek Veeraraghavan Talks Openly*What was the inspiration to start AdBidCentral? The conditions that inspired AdBidCentral came from a variety of factors in my personal [...] more...
Reader Favorites
Classifieds
- Communications Fellow
- Sr Director, Marketing Services
- Senior Web Analyst
- Account Director
- Director of Analytics
Recent Comments
- Jedd Gould: I think you miss the point. Publications have to charge because the content most are
- Gavin Dunaway: They're similar, but Ning is more a competitor to Facebook and MySpace while StumbleUpon considers
- Steve Feldman: Does StumbleUpon compete with and does essentially what Ning networks does?
- Bulent: I wonder how many of the clients would accept a media plan, that would -as
