Transcript

Wednesday February 6, 2008

Amidst Determining AOL Fate, Buy.at Is Acquired

Time Warner Chief Executive Jeff Bewkes, who took over the position at the beginning of the year, is expected today to outline the companies future, including what will happen to its AOL unit. AOL has been shifting from an Internet service provider to focus on online advertising. In what may be part of a plan to keep up with the possible merger of Microsoft and Yahoo in the Internet advertising market, AOL announced Tuesday that it has purchased buy.at, an online affiliate marketing network. Buy.at will join the roster of companies purchased within the last 12 months as part of AOL’s Platform A organization including Tacoda, AdTech, Third Screen Media and Quigo. Buy.at is a pay per action model in which advertisers pay its member Web publishers only when a visitor to the site takes a desired action in response to an ad. Time Warner fourth-quarter profit fell to $1 billion, or 28 cents per share, from $1.8 billion, or 44 cents per share, a year earlier. It’s a stark difference from 1999 when the company's stock traded at $94 a share, just before Time Warner announced its merger with AOL, creating what was hailed as the first truly 21st-century media and Internet goliath.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSWEN379620080205
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/05/AR2008020503400.html
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120229791411547609.html
reuters story
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080206/media_nm/timewarner_dc
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/06/aol_acquires_buy_at/
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=7899
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aLW5gNU4B8zg
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9061103
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200802051049DOWJONESDJONLINE000408_FORTUNE5.htm
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gFxyiiGpGENN3i2ynByYnn_C8jpgD8UKR6G00

Google Sees An Opening To Crack China With Legal Music Downloads

For two years Google has been desperately trying to make gains on China’s number one search engine Baidu. Over the next two weeks Google will set in motion its latest plan to gain Internet search market share from Baidu, as it joins forces with a Chinese online music company and major record labels to provide free – licensed – music downloads in China. The service could represent a turning point in the battle over dominance in a market that is expected to surpass the U.S. in number of users by the end of the year. Baidu’s dominance in the search market in China is due in part to its practice of offering search results with links to free, unlicensed music downloads which generates advertising revenue for Baidu. However, as we reported yesterday on Searchengineworld, Baidu faces legal action from major global record companies for copyright infringement which could result in Baidu having to remove any links to music owned by the record companies, thus eliminating a large majority of Baidu’s free music offerings and in the process giving the new Google music service a boost. Under the plan, Google hopes to attract users with better-quality files, that will give labels and search companies valuable data needed to make money from advertising. Thus far, Universal is the only confirmed major label. Other interested labels include Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and others.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120226551059746565.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN0523556620080206
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/06/google-to-challenge-baidu-in-china-with-free-music/
http://www.webmasterworld.com/goog/3567592.htm

[edited by: Vanessa_Zamora at 8:02 pm (utc) on Feb. 6, 2008]