acquisitions | Internet Marketing Blog

Yahoo's Tumblr acquisition sends clear message to advertisers

It's official: Yahoo has purchased popular blogging platform Tumblr for more than a billion dollars - $1.1bn to be exact.

The internet's latest nine-figure acquisition is probably one most industry observers wouldn't have predicted.

After all, despite that an ex-Googler, Marissa Mayer, is at Yahoo's helm, there were few prior indicators that she was looking to make a billion dollar purchase.

And if there had been, Tumblr, while incredibly popular, doesn't seem like the company that would have made it to the top of the list as Yahoo's track record with acquisitions of user generated content startups is not all that impressive.

From Geocities to Flickr, Yahoo has proven to be a master of reverse alchemy in the space, repeatedly finding ways to turn gold to lead.

by Patricio Robles 21 May 2013 13:42pm 0 comments

Is Facebook's AdSense finally on the way?

Some investors and analysts are increasingly bullish on Facebook's prospects for solving the social networking monetization riddle, something reflected in the recent increase in the company's share price.

Assuming that they're right, one thing remains to be seen: what Facebook's cash cow will be. One thing is not in question, however: there is no shortage of monetization ideas the company could conceivably pursue.

by Patricio Robles 07 December 2012 13:58pm 0 comments

Will designers get a gold rush of their own?

There's arguably never been a better time to be a developer.

Looking for a full-time job? If you have the chops, they are plentiful, and if you're in a hot market, salaries are high. Not interested in the nine-to-five routine? Freelance opportunities abound and investors are still pouring big bucks into startups, with many focusing on backing entrepreneurial engineers who can turn their ideas into code.

But if all success on the web and mobile internet required was a few hundred thousand lines of awesome Ruby code, a few NoSQL databases here and there and a clever Amazon AWS-based architecture, there would be a lot more Facebooks out there.

What's missing for many companies? One word: design.

by Patricio Robles 02 October 2012 20:23pm 4 comments

FTC clears Facebook's Instagram acquisition

It may not be the $1bn deal it was when it was announced in April, but Facebook's acquisition of popular mobile photo sharing service Instagram is a done deal.

Last week, the UK's Office Of Fair Trading gave the nod to the purchase and yesterday, the last regulator standing, the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC), cleared the deal too.

by Patricio Robles 23 August 2012 17:28pm 0 comments

Huh? Autodesk buys mobile video startup Socialcam for $60m

Investors are pouring big bucks into startups, and when it comes to their mobile investments, photos and videos are where it's at. And for an obvious reason: following Facebook's still-pending purchase of Instagram for $1bn, investors are hoping they can fund the next big acquisition target.

But predicting who will be acquired, and by whom, can be a tricky exercise. Case in point: today, Autodesk announced that it is acquiring mobile video startup Socialcam for $60m.

by Patricio Robles 17 July 2012 14:21pm 2 comments

Yahoo's new CEO: Google's Marissa Mayer

Just two weeks ago, sources close to Yahoo's search for a new CEO indicated that the ailing internet giant's board of directors was set to put the company's future in the hands of either interim CEO Ross Levinsohn or current Hulu CEO Jason Kilar.

Both prospective CEOs have strong media pedigrees, which suggesed that Yahoo's board was prepared to guide the company down a familiar and not-always-successful ad and content-driven path.

by Patricio Robles 17 July 2012 10:55am 1 comment

Oracle continues social shopping spree with Involver acquisition

Many businesses may have little idea what their social media marketing and ad campaigns are producing in the way of ROI, but by and large companies continue to up their investments in social.

That has created a booming business for firms that popped up to help companies manage and track their social campaigns. A booming business that caught the attention of some of the biggest names in tech.

by Patricio Robles 10 July 2012 18:38pm 1 comment

Face.com, third party APIs and little white lies

When Face.com announced it was being acquired by Facebook last month for a reported $80 to $100m, you can be sure that it was happy day for Face.com's founders, employees and investors.

But it wasn't necessarily a day worth celebrating for developers relying on Face.com's facial recognition API. The reason: Face.com had just been acquired by one of tech's biggest names and as we've seen time and time again, that often means big changes ahead.

by Patricio Robles 09 July 2012 14:01pm 0 comments

Microsoft buys Yammer, bets $1.2bn on enterprise social networking

Social networking's impact on the consumer internet is well-established and one need look no further than Facebook's current valuation to see that, despite healthy skepticism, social networking will continue to play a large role on the web.

But what about enterprise social networking?

by Patricio Robles 26 June 2012 18:25pm 1 comment

Facebook acquires Face.com

After nearly a month of rumors, it's official: Facebook.com is buying facial recognition company Face.com.

While terms of the deal weren't announced, previous reports indicated that the price for the Israeli company would be somewhere in the range of $80m to $100m.

by Patricio Robles 18 June 2012 21:22pm 0 comments