TowerOne.com

Google is to sell display ads in video through a partnership with YuMe, an online video advertising network. Apparently YuMe will serve InVideo overlay adverts as part of Google’s AdSense for video beta advertising program. YuMe publishers who are current AdSense customers will also now have the opportunity to accept AdSense for video ad placements.

Current YuMe publishers utilizing AdSense for video to monetize their content include VidShadow, Mondo Media and JoeCartoon, to name a few.

YuMe investors include Accel Partners, BV Capital, and Khosla Ventures.

Jerry Yang and the Yahoo Board have issued a letter to stockholders explaining their rejection of the Microsoft offer. The missive puts a positive spin on the strengths of the embattled portal and search operator. However it appears to miss two key points:

1. There is no such thing as a sockholder that cannot be bought with 50cents.
2. Perception is reality and Yahoo! are perceived as dead if they stay on their current strategy.

Dear Stockholders,

On February 1, 2008, Microsoft made an unsolicited proposal to acquire your company. As much has been reported in the press recently, I wanted to reach out to you personally to let you know why your Board of Directors, after a careful review by Yahoo!’s management along with our financial and legal advisors, believes that Microsoft’s proposal substantially undervalues Yahoo! and is not in the best interests of our stockholders.

Most importantly, I want you to know that your Board is continuously evaluating all of Yahoo!’s strategic options in the context of the rapidly evolving industry environment, and we remain committed to pursuing initiatives that maximize value for all our stockholders.

We have a unique combination of strengths

– Yahoo! is one of the most recognizable and admired brands in the world. We have over 500 million users (nearly 1 out of every 2 internet users worldwide). In the U.S., we are # 1 in many of the most used online services including personalized home pages, mail, news, music, shopping and travel. Because we have leadership positions in so many indispensable online services, users spend more time on Yahoo! sites than anywhere else online.

– Yahoo! is an attractive partner for marketers. Yahoo! is #1 in online display advertising, which represents 90% of the advertising inventory on the web, and we are also a leader in search marketing and a pioneer in the growing fields of mobile advertising and online video advertising. Through Yahoo!, advertisers can now [Read more]

So the general wisdom has it that the Yahoo Board will officially reject the Microsoft offer to buy the company for a massive  $42billion. Its smacks of the condemned prisoner walking to the noose and stopping to tie his shoe lace. In the absence of another bidder it really seems to be just a matter of price, with a likely closing price tag of $52billion.

Microsoft Corp. is offering $44.6 billion in cash and stock for search engine operator Yahoo Inc. in a move to boost its competitive edge in the online services market.

The unexpected announcement Friday comes as Microsoft, the world’s biggest software company, seeks new ways to compete more efrfectively against the search and online advertising powerhouse Google Inc.

In a letter to Yahoo’s board of directors, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said the company will bid $31 per share, representing a 62 percent premium to Yahoo’s closing stock price Thursday, and emphasized that the deal isn’t subject to financing.

“In February 2007, I received a letter from your chairman indicating the view of the Yahoo board that “now is not the right time from the perspective of our shareholders to enter into discussions regarding an acquisition transaction,” Ballmer wrote.

“According to that letter, the principal reason for this view was the Yahoo board’s confidence in the “potential upside” if management successfully executed on a reformulated strategy based on certain operational initiatives, such as Project Panama, and a significant organizational realignment.”

“A year has gone by, and the competitive situation has not improved,” Ballmer added.

Under terms of the proposed deal, Yahoo shareholders could choose to receive cash or Microsoft common shares, with the total purchase consisting of 50 percent each cash and stock.

Microsoft said it sees at least $1 billion cost savings generated by the merger, and intends to offer significant retention packages to Yahoo engineers, key leaders and employees. The software giant said it believes the takeover would receive regulatory clearance and close in the second half of 2008.

Original Story 

As if we needed another question answering site, Amazon has launched its own in the form of Askville.com. You all know the drill, type in a question and hey presto! a ‘real’ person gives you the answer. Askville, in beta since December, is now live. They join illustriuos company such as Yahoo inc’s Answers and Answerbank. The Google ‘Answers’ service was discontinued in December 2006.

The question is ‘how long before Askville is dead?’

www.askville.com