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My 2 featured articles for the week ending Apr. 21, 2007:

Archived blogs for the week of Apr. 16, 2007

1331 - Apr. 18, 2007 - 3.41 PM EST

Yahoo delivers lower 1st quarter numbers

Excluding TAC (Traffic Acquision Costs) and overall fees Yahoo pays its affiliates, revenue totaled $1.18 billion, an increase of 9 percent from 2006, but less than the $1.21 billion expected by analysts.

The second largest search company also issued forecasts for its second quarter and annual sales that were within most analysts' expectations. "Since September 20, 2006, we have made clear our intention to greatly sharpen our focus," Yahoo Chief Executive Terry Semel said in a conference call after results were released.

Semel added "as I look forward, I see tremendous opportunities for this company, but there's still much more to do before we get there." Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney said Yahoo's lower results "doesn't change our long-term thesis, although we had expected more near-term upside." Yahoo's results benefited from a new search technology it introduced to its U.S. advertisers in February, designed to help the company provide search results that are as relevant and profitable as Google's.

Panama's new features helped the company boost sales, but higher expenses also hit its bottom line. Operating expenses for the quarter increased to $789.2 million, or 47 percent of sales, from $707.9 million, or 45 percent, from the corresponding period of 2006.

TAC fees that Yahoo paid U.S. affiliates rose 2.2 percent from the last quarter, while fees that Yahoo pays overseas partners jumped 7.6 percent. Meanwhile, the revenue Yahoo generates for every search using its Internet search engine dipped in the quarter by about 7 percent, contributing to the quarter's less-than-expected profits.

According to a new report from comScore Networks, while Yahoo managed to keep its market share of Internet search stable through January and February, Yahoo's U.S. market share dipped in March to 27.5 percent from the 28.1 percent in February. Even with the March U.S. results, Yahoo is now firmly entrenched as the No. 2 provider of Internet search, a market that is still growing at a very healthy pace. Read more...

Posted on Businessblog™

1330 - Apr. 17, 2007 - 12.39 PM EST

The Net continues to haunt some people

Collectively, many of the attendees of the NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) conference this week are very concerned that local television stations and some major network affiliates will be the next business category to be severely threathened by the Internet.

Overall, the Internet could offer TV networks even more clout when cutting deals with their affiliates. However, the news isn't all that bad. As it relates to broadcasting, the advertising industry is going to continue to grow, and the switch from analog to digital could even mean a big payout.

But for many local television outlets, all the warning signs are there and cannot be easily discounted. In March, News Corp. and NBC Universal established a new online video network that will help distribute movies and television shows across some of the top Internet portals.

For its part, CBS also announced its own video network last week. Richard Jones, GM of Bay City TV says "many people are deeply concerned by all of this." Bay City TV is a Fox affiliate in San Diego. Jones added "it's still so early in the cycle that nobody knows exactly what's going to happen next. But there's really many worries about TV shows that have been seen on the Internet and whether it will affect future ratings in any way."

Overall, the mounting pressures on affiliates keep building and hit home for Jones on a recent flight when he noticed the man sitting beside him was watching Fox's 24.

Jones said "he told me he missed the show during the week so he downloaded the episode on his iPod. He simply wanted to get caught up by the time Monday's new episode aired! That's part of what we're dealing with and it's growing rapidly."

Clearly though, the market for regional TV broadcasters appeared troubled even before the advent of the Internet. Read more...

Posted on Businessblog™

1329 - Apr. 16, 2007 - 5.22 PM EST

Google sponsors the OCRopus project

Google is reportedly sponsoring an open source project called OCRopus. The new initiative is to develop a HRS (handwriting recognition system) to convert any handwritten document into standard text that any computer can understand.

Google's new project has attracted funding from some German government agencies and a few other public and private organizations.

The OCR (Optimal Character Recognition) system and the open source document analysis could be used to create electronic libraries, analyse complete historical documents and help vision-impaired people access the information. Read more...

Posted on Businessblog™

1328 - Apr. 16, 2007 - 9.19 AM EST

DoubleClick acquired by Google

Late Friday, Google said it will acquire DoubleClick, for $3.1 billion. This marks another important acquisition right in the center of the Internet economy.

Overall, taking into consideration that DoubleClick was valued at about $1.1 billion less than two years ago, and noting that has since divested itself of some of its divisions to other parties, the acquition price tag represents a notable increase in the valuation of the company.

After all, Microsoft had been wanting control of DoubleClick, which is controlled by San Francisco private-equity firm Hellman & Friedman.

The agreed-upon acquisition price represents about an 800 percent return for DoubleClick's current owners, who paid less than $331 million for it at the end of 2005.

As the Web economy enters its second decade, the price tag reveals just how valuable some Internet companies can be.

In adding DoubleClick to its arsenal, Google forays deeper into the business of placing the electronic advertisements that now garner so many Web sites.

However, this also further complicates Google's already delicate relationships with many of its Internet publishers. Some of Google's Web publishers often rely on Google's AdSense ads for advertising revenue, but worry that Google's ever-growing footprint may somehow further complicate their own growth plans internally.

Posted on Businessblog™

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