EU set to clear Google/DoubleClick merger: sources

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Google is expected to receive unconditional approval from European Union regulators next week for its $3.1 billion takeover of ad firm DoubleClick, people familiar with the situation said.

The approval has long been expected because the European Commission decided in January not to object formally to the transaction.

The Commission, the EU's top competition watchdog, has never rejected a deal without sending formal objections.

Privacy advocates have objected to the deal, saying it would give the two firms unprecedented access to information about consumers. The Commission has said privacy considerations are outside the scope of its authority over mergers.

The deal would combine Internet search engine giant Google's dominance in pay-per-click Web advertising with DoubleClick's market-leading position in flashier display ads.

The planned acquisition won approval from the Federal Trade Commission in December. For the past six years, the EU has never rejected a merger approved by U.S. authorities.

The merger is part of a consolidation within the Internet advertising industry.

Microsoft Corp bought aQuantive for $6 billion, Yahoo Inc acquired BlueLithium for $300 million and Time Warner Inc's AOL unit bought Tacoda for an undisclosed amount.

eBay Sellers Network on Facebook for Fun and Profit

People are popping up all over on Facebook like so many prairie dogs in a Kansas field. The social networking site has been growing at lightning pace. It now has more than 64 million active users and has had an average of 250,000 new registrations per day since January 2007, according to its statistics page.
It didn't take long for eBay and online sellers to spot the opportunities on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/), especially on a site that has "networking" in part of its name. Although the site has only just started exploring out-and-out advertising, there are many ways for Facebook users to get the word out about their wares. (And it's easy to have fun while you're there, especially for a site rife with fluffy little apps like "Happy Hour," where you can send a virtual drink to your friends, and a quiz naming car logos of the world).
News Feeds A "News Feed" shows up in the middle of your Facebook home page, informing you what is going on with your Facebook friends. For example, the feed may notify you when a friend joins or leaves a Facebook group, adds or removes an application (see below), or comments on a photo.
You can also use the "Status Update" feature, which allows you to write a short note about what you're doing or thinking that moment. This is also a good way to alert your Facebook friends if you've made a new blog post. You can also add a Feed or Blog application to your page to keep folks piped into your blogging activities.
Applications/Widgets Facebook offers a number of widgets, aka "apps," which allow you to embed a little mini-program within your profile on the site, publish news stories that go out to your friends, etc.
For example, the "eBay Marketplace" app lets you broadcast to your Facebook friends when you sell an item on eBay, and they can click a link to see what else you are selling.

Vertical Search: Microsoft, Yahoo and a new kind of functionality

Combining the horizontal search capabilities of Yahoo and Microsoft would still leave Google twice the share of that market. But ‘Googling’ the net has lost its novelty value and the market is looking for a different kind of functionality. As mobile access grows, the future will be in vertical search like real estate, travel, jobs or financial services, and here Google will have less of a lead over the consolidated rival. In fact the vertical market is wide open. Take advertising networks. Slow takeup of advertising on social networks was behind Google’s uncharacteristic failure to hit its earning forecast on February 1. Meanwhile, AOL bought buy.at, an affiliate network that differs from pay-per-click in that the advertiser only pays if a transaction results. Innovative models like this can quickly lead advertisers and publishers to abandon providers that add less value domestically or fail to leverage international markets. Exec is going to have a lot of fun in the remainder of this year mapping this landscape.

SEO 'can boost revenue within months'

Wednesday, 13 Feb 2008 10:05 Search engine optimisation (SEO) can make a "phenomenal" difference to a firm, an expert has asserted. Lee Smith, of search marketing agency Utopia, described online marketing as a "crucial consideration" for all businesses and claimed that it can create "substantial" growth within a few months.Utopia has claimed to have increased some client profits by more than 300 per cent."By using proven SEO services for companies such as hosted exchange provider Network London, website traffic and business leads have risen by over 1000 per cent for the 12 months to January 2008," it boasted.SEO firm Brick Blue also claims that enhancing a company's web presence can boost its revenues.By achieving a higher ranking in search portals, firms benefit from an increase in site traffic, which leads to greater return on investment, it notes.However, Brick Blue suggests firms consider maximising the effectiveness of search campaigns by combining organic methods with pay-per-click advertising.

Microsoft Won't Beg or Steal; Will Borrow to Buy Yahoo

Microsoft CFO Chris Liddell told Wall St. analysts the company would likely borrow to pay for the cash portion of its Yahoo bid. That's a first in the company's history. The half-cash, half-stock offer is $31 per share.
Microsoft has a huge war chest, approximately $21 billion at year end.
It's not as if Microsoft couldn't fund the cash portion without borrowing any money. The cash-rich company definitely won't have to beg for the loan.
So what's the exact amount Microsoft will borrow? It's anybody's guess.
The need for capital, though, won't subside if or when the bid is accepted. As Kevin Johnson, Microsoft President, Platform and Services, noted in the initial conference call, "There are a few key dynamics in the online advertising industry that I think are worth noting. First, this is a business that has scale economics in a few key areas; scale economics in search and ad serving and scale economics and the capital needed to support these areas, CapEx for data centers, servers and infrastructure."
Who ever said Web 2.0 has low barriers to entry? Not the search engine CEOs who claim competition is just one click away.
Posted by Kevin Heisler at February 4, 2008 1:31 PM