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Just when Microsoft shareholders were breathing a sigh of relief over dodging the Yahoo merger/search acquisition bullet, today there are rumors that Microsoft and Yahoo are talking again about some sort of deal. Techcrunch says it is a full buyout discussion while CNET and Silicon Alley Insider say it is some sort of search agreement.
The trigger for Yahoo may have been their continuing disarray including the departure of a number of executives plus the continuing government scrutiny of the ad deal with Google announced two weeks ago. The trigger for Microsoft is likely getting at least some of what the executives wanted on the cheap. Still, whatever piece of Yahoo is in play is only a bargain if Microsoft can put it to good use and that is the "big bet" that remains a longshot.
Just like their Live Search Club , Microsoft’s Live Search cashback incentive program has drawn some "entrepreneurs":
That’s right, $630 in cash can be yours for $714. But if you access the page through a Live Search ad link that returns 35 per cent of the purchase price, you can make up the difference. And then some. So you make a profit, and so does the seller. At the expense of Microsoft and eBay.
Hit the link for further details as it is not clear that Microsoft is actually offering 35% anymore, but this was as inevitable as death and taxes.
This week, Microsoft announced the acquisition for an undisclosed sum of Navic Networks of Waltham, Mass., a privately held company with about 80 employees specializing in addressable advertising and interactive television applications. Much press comment has been to devoted to the interactive television technology which, for example, would let a user interactively request more detailed information during a commercial. This seems unlikely to me, but then I find it hard to believe that viewers sit for hours watching the home shopping networks.
The real pony to my mind is in the addressable advertising – via cable or satellite set top boxes Navic’s technology can individually address each consumer household, monitor what channel they are watching, and deliver targeted advertising on an individual household basis. Moreover, as Benjamin Romano reports at the Seattle Times, "Navic’s technology reaches some 35 million digital set-top boxes in North America via cable providers including Charter Communications, Cox and Time Warner."
With that kind of demographic information, Navic surely has a leg up in selling advertising although they do have to share the booty with the cable and satellite operators. It’s not all a bed of roses though, as the cable operators have also formed Project Canoe to sell targeted ads themselves while Google TV has partnered with Dish Network to do the same thing.
Still, the big question is why Microsoft wants to be in this business. Brian McAndrews recites the current Microsoft mantra, "In the long run, we want to be a platform across all media," but that only begs the question of whether the ad biz is really the most profitable investment for Microsoft’s cash.
In April, Microsoft took a lot of flak for announcing that after August 31 the DRM protected music downloads of the customers of Microsoft’s failed MSN Music service would be locked in amber, because Microsoft was turning off the DRM servers having moved on to greener pastures populated by Zunes. Today, however, comes news that Microsoft has thought better of that unpopular decision:
Microsoft has reversed its decision to pull the plug on MSN Music’s authorization servers, according to an e-mail sent out to customers this afternoon. Customers who bought music from the now-defunct service will now be able to continue listening to their music and transferring it to new machines until at least the end of 2011. At that time, Microsoft says that it will evaluate how often the servers are being used and will determine what (if any) further steps to take to support customers.
Since MSN Music was never a world beater, it’s hard to believe that keeping the servers going is putting a huge hole in Microsoft’s pocket so the reprieve is a good business move from a public relations perspective. Unfortunately, doing the right thing two months after the original PR hit is significantly less desirable than doing it right the first time.
