Yahoo! and Time Warner's AOL are close to inking a deal to combine their internet operations to thwart Microsoft's takeover bid even as the software giant is joining forces with Rupert Murdoch's News Corp for a joint bid, reports said.
The possible Yahoo!-AOL (America Online) tie-up is part of Yahoo!'s plan to present its shareholders with an alternative to Microsoft's unsolicited offer. Under the terms being discussed, Time Warner will merge its AOL unit with Yahoo! and make a cash investment in return for about 20 per cent equity in the combined entity.
Yahoo! would then use that cash and more funds to buy back several billion dollars worth of its own stock at a price somewhere in the $30-$40 a share range, The Wall Street Journal said, quoting sources familiar with the situation.
Yahoo! is also negotiating with Google about an advertising tie-up.
The benefit for Time Warner is that AOL has been struggling for many years for want of a viable strategy. It has lost most of its value since it combined with Time Warner in 2000.
For its part, Microsoft, which threatened Saturday last to take its offer directly to shareholders via a proxy fight, is in talks with Murdoch's media group about mounting a joint bid for Yahoo!
The two have yet to reach an agreement on joining forces, but their discussions are described as serious. If they succeed, they would be able to combine three of the biggest Internet properties: News Corp.'s MySpace, Microsoft's MSN and Yahoo!
Yahoo! had earlier spoken to New Corp for a tie-up to prevent acquisition by Microsoft.
Microsoft has offered Yahoo! shareholders a combination of cash and Microsoft shares currently valued at $42 billion, or $29.24 a share.
Microsoft wants to combine with Yahoo to better challenge Google.
Indo-Asian News Service
Showing posts with label AOL. Show all posts
Showing posts with label AOL. Show all posts
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Monday, March 17, 2008
AOL to acquire social network Bebo for $850 million
AOL has entered into an agreement to acquire social media site Bebo for $850 million to be paid in cash. Bebo has a strong presence in countries such as the UK, the US, Ireland and New Zealand. Bebo was started by Michael and Xochi Birch and has a total of 22.4 million unique visitors all over the world and 40 million registered users, as per comScore data for January 2008.
With the acquisition, AOL will add a social network to its product portfolio, which did not have a strong social media site so far. AOL has ICQ and AIM as its instant messaging services and Yedda.com, a question-and-answer community. AOL’s AIM Pages service helps users conduct various interactive activities other than chatting, such as sharing slideshows, videos and polls.
AOL claims that the acquisition will add another 40 million users to the existing 40 million social media users for its AIM and ICQ services.
According to comScore, for the month of January, from the 22.4 million visitors drawn to Bebo, about 60 per cent (13.3 million) came from Europe, while about 22 per cent (about 4.8 million) were from North America, and 16 per cent (3.5 million) from the Asia Pacific. The data shows that members spent more than three hours on an average on the site. “Bebo is the perfect complement to AOL’s personal communications network and puts us in a leading position in social media. What drew us to Bebo was its substantial and fast growing worldwide user base, its vision of a truly social web,” Randy Falco, chairman and chief executive officer, AOL, said in a statement,
Joannna Shields, president, Bebo, says, “AOL understands the shifting dynamics of the web and has clearly demonstrated its commitment to leveraging the ever-increasing power of social networks. With one and the same vision in this area, it was a natural progression for Bebo to join AOL.”
With the acquisition, AOL will add a social network to its product portfolio, which did not have a strong social media site so far. AOL has ICQ and AIM as its instant messaging services and Yedda.com, a question-and-answer community. AOL’s AIM Pages service helps users conduct various interactive activities other than chatting, such as sharing slideshows, videos and polls.
AOL claims that the acquisition will add another 40 million users to the existing 40 million social media users for its AIM and ICQ services.
According to comScore, for the month of January, from the 22.4 million visitors drawn to Bebo, about 60 per cent (13.3 million) came from Europe, while about 22 per cent (about 4.8 million) were from North America, and 16 per cent (3.5 million) from the Asia Pacific. The data shows that members spent more than three hours on an average on the site. “Bebo is the perfect complement to AOL’s personal communications network and puts us in a leading position in social media. What drew us to Bebo was its substantial and fast growing worldwide user base, its vision of a truly social web,” Randy Falco, chairman and chief executive officer, AOL, said in a statement,
Joannna Shields, president, Bebo, says, “AOL understands the shifting dynamics of the web and has clearly demonstrated its commitment to leveraging the ever-increasing power of social networks. With one and the same vision in this area, it was a natural progression for Bebo to join AOL.”
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
AOL and Oneindia Forge A Strategic Alliance
To Power the Hindi and Tamil Language Channels of AOL.in
AOL, a division of Time Warner, one of the world's largest media companies, and Oneindia, the leading online portal in Indian languages, today announced a strategic partnership for powering the content on the Hindi and Tamil language channels of AOL.in.
The language portals, aol.in/hindi & aol.in/tamil will offer compelling content ranging from news, movies, sports, Astrology to art & culture from various regions in India. The News section will be updated with stories as-they-happen including national and international news, while the movies section provides comprehensive coverage of Bollywood & Tollywood with stories on upcoming movies, reviews, actors/actresses interviews, special reports and latest gossip. Apart from daily horoscope, the Astrology channel will provide monthly & weekly forecasts.
"AOL.in will be able to leverage on Oneindia's experience in providing language specific content on Internet. The strategic alliance will offer AOL's audience with a one-stop destination for engaging and informative content on the Internet, in their own language" said Mr. B. G. Mahesh, CEO Greynium Information Technologies Pvt. Ltd., speaking on the occasion.
Commenting on the deal Mr. P.G.Ponnapa, AOL's Vice President, India, stated, "our partnership with Oneindia in launching the language portal will add strategic value to AOL's plan in addressing the growing base of regional users and increasing share in the language market in India."
About AOL
AOL is a global Web services company, and operates www.aol.in in India. AOL operates some of the most popular Web destinations, offers a comprehensive suite of free software and services, and provides a full set of advertising solutions. A majority-owned subsidiary of Time Warner Inc. AOL LLC is based in Dulles, Virginia. AOL and its subsidiaries also have operations in Europe, Canada and Asia. Learn more at AOL.com.
About ONENDIA
Oneindia (owned by Greynium Information Technologies Pvt. Ltd) is an integrated Internet portal delivering content, community and commerce to Indian consumers, businesses and the global Indian community. oneindia is the market leader in Indian languages (Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam) and has been serving the regional audiences since year 2000. The Indian Classifieds portal of Oneindia, Click.in, is available in English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada & Malayalam.
Learn more at www.oneindia.in / www.oneindia.mobi (WAP version)
AOL, a division of Time Warner, one of the world's largest media companies, and Oneindia, the leading online portal in Indian languages, today announced a strategic partnership for powering the content on the Hindi and Tamil language channels of AOL.in.
The language portals, aol.in/hindi & aol.in/tamil will offer compelling content ranging from news, movies, sports, Astrology to art & culture from various regions in India. The News section will be updated with stories as-they-happen including national and international news, while the movies section provides comprehensive coverage of Bollywood & Tollywood with stories on upcoming movies, reviews, actors/actresses interviews, special reports and latest gossip. Apart from daily horoscope, the Astrology channel will provide monthly & weekly forecasts.
"AOL.in will be able to leverage on Oneindia's experience in providing language specific content on Internet. The strategic alliance will offer AOL's audience with a one-stop destination for engaging and informative content on the Internet, in their own language" said Mr. B. G. Mahesh, CEO Greynium Information Technologies Pvt. Ltd., speaking on the occasion.
Commenting on the deal Mr. P.G.Ponnapa, AOL's Vice President, India, stated, "our partnership with Oneindia in launching the language portal will add strategic value to AOL's plan in addressing the growing base of regional users and increasing share in the language market in India."
About AOL
AOL is a global Web services company, and operates www.aol.in in India. AOL operates some of the most popular Web destinations, offers a comprehensive suite of free software and services, and provides a full set of advertising solutions. A majority-owned subsidiary of Time Warner Inc. AOL LLC is based in Dulles, Virginia. AOL and its subsidiaries also have operations in Europe, Canada and Asia. Learn more at AOL.com.
About ONENDIA
Oneindia (owned by Greynium Information Technologies Pvt. Ltd) is an integrated Internet portal delivering content, community and commerce to Indian consumers, businesses and the global Indian community. oneindia is the market leader in Indian languages (Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam) and has been serving the regional audiences since year 2000. The Indian Classifieds portal of Oneindia, Click.in, is available in English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada & Malayalam.
Learn more at www.oneindia.in / www.oneindia.mobi (WAP version)
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
AOL Mobile Launches With Promise of Superior Surfing URL - wap.aol.com/uk
AOL UK has today launched AOL mobile, a new mobile internet portal offering advanced functionality and a "real" internet user experience.
The offering promises a web experience closer to that of a desktop PC than any other current mobile portal. Pulling content straight from the channels on its internet portal and offering Web Surf, Email and Search, the AOL Mobile portal keeps users connected and informed whilst on the move.
The AOL mobile portal also ensures that all web content is configured to match your phone, regardless of what handset you have. The service is able to remember user favourites and recent requests - from Premiership Club news to horoscopes to local weather information. Log in just once to your emails and you have continuous access with no need to re-sign in for 30 days. These benefits emphasise AOL's commitment to extending its leadership in easy-to-use web products into the mobile market.
AOL's Mobile Portal includes dynamic mobile transcoding technology which takes web content from AOL.co.uk and optimises it for the individual user's phone. Using the AOL Mobile Portal over your phone will more closely resemble the ease of use and relevance of the desktop web experience. AOL Mobile's easy-to-use tabbed navigation and intuitive menus enable users to easily scroll through the applications and content most important to them and access key mobile services in the fewest number of clicks:
Web Surf
The "Web Surf" product allows users to enter any Website URL and for the page to be transcoded for easy viewing on their mobile device. Once a user clicks on a link, the Web pages are transcoded whilst still maintaining the AOL header and footer for easy navigation back to the UK Portal.
Email
The redesigned mobile AOL Mail provides a rich email experience for mobile web users, offering greater ease of use through an improved look and feel, email and contact search capabilities, and full folder access.
Search
AOL Mobile search is integrated into the homepage, allowing users to conduct both web and image searches. Web search results, when clicked, will lead to the destination web page transcoded by AOL for the mobile phone.
Content
Content is also delivered directly from Aol.co.uk, with bespoke sport, news and entertainment channels available. The range of channels and portal services are set to expand quickly as AOL further integrates its online and mobile web portals.
Dana Dunne, CEO AOL Europe said: "This launch represents AOL building on its extensive Internet experience to bring consumers superior mobile internet. AOL mobile delivers an unrivalled experience which we hope will encourage new waves of consumer to experiment with surfing on the move".
The offering promises a web experience closer to that of a desktop PC than any other current mobile portal. Pulling content straight from the channels on its internet portal and offering Web Surf, Email and Search, the AOL Mobile portal keeps users connected and informed whilst on the move.
The AOL mobile portal also ensures that all web content is configured to match your phone, regardless of what handset you have. The service is able to remember user favourites and recent requests - from Premiership Club news to horoscopes to local weather information. Log in just once to your emails and you have continuous access with no need to re-sign in for 30 days. These benefits emphasise AOL's commitment to extending its leadership in easy-to-use web products into the mobile market.
AOL's Mobile Portal includes dynamic mobile transcoding technology which takes web content from AOL.co.uk and optimises it for the individual user's phone. Using the AOL Mobile Portal over your phone will more closely resemble the ease of use and relevance of the desktop web experience. AOL Mobile's easy-to-use tabbed navigation and intuitive menus enable users to easily scroll through the applications and content most important to them and access key mobile services in the fewest number of clicks:
Web Surf
The "Web Surf" product allows users to enter any Website URL and for the page to be transcoded for easy viewing on their mobile device. Once a user clicks on a link, the Web pages are transcoded whilst still maintaining the AOL header and footer for easy navigation back to the UK Portal.
The redesigned mobile AOL Mail provides a rich email experience for mobile web users, offering greater ease of use through an improved look and feel, email and contact search capabilities, and full folder access.
Search
AOL Mobile search is integrated into the homepage, allowing users to conduct both web and image searches. Web search results, when clicked, will lead to the destination web page transcoded by AOL for the mobile phone.
Content
Content is also delivered directly from Aol.co.uk, with bespoke sport, news and entertainment channels available. The range of channels and portal services are set to expand quickly as AOL further integrates its online and mobile web portals.
Dana Dunne, CEO AOL Europe said: "This launch represents AOL building on its extensive Internet experience to bring consumers superior mobile internet. AOL mobile delivers an unrivalled experience which we hope will encourage new waves of consumer to experiment with surfing on the move".
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