According to the CEO of Placecast, Alistair Goodman:

Once we know the place a user is interested in, we can derive a lot of useful insights about what kind of consumer they are, and then serve them a very targeted ad.

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…Yahoo’s stock goes up or (in most cases) down dramatically .  A follow-up to yesterday’s post Microsoft/Yahoo: Ballmer “We are done…”

At Wednesday’s shareholders’ meeting Ballmer said, “We are done with all acquisition discussions with Yahoo. I’ve said that a bunch of times. Somehow some people have gotten confused nonetheless.”

Yes Steve, people are confused as your comments are “somewhat confusing”. Seattle PI reporter Joseph Tartakoff takes a look back at Steve Ballmer’s public comments on the possibility of a Yahoo deal over the past few months and the (mostly negaitvie) effect on Yahoo’s stock.

Source: The Microsoft Blog

Arianna Huffington from The Huffington Post is potentially seeking funding for her new venture into investigative journalism, according to Robert MacMillan from Reuters. The details of this are hazy at the moment but given the fact that traditional media is crumbling at a rapid pace, a vacuum has been created in many areas of journalism. But there are many folks who would be willing to fund and many others willing to come in and fill this void:

Huffington’s website is small compared with big professional publishers, but it looks like she’s latching on to a growing trend. Mark Cuban, who was charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission with insider trading on Monday, is financing several investigative journalism ventures, including former CBS newsman Dan Rather’s reports. Two other projects that he has funded, sharesleuth.com and bailoutsleuth.com, seek to expose financial wrongdoings as well as poorly thought out ways to spend Wall Street bailout money amid the financial crisis. Both are trying to tackle big projects that it is becoming increasingly hard to pay for at many traditional media outlets.

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WebMD and Marketing Technology Solutions (MTS), the operator of QualityHealth – an interactive healthcare marketing company, have mutually terminated their merger deal without providing any explanation. The scraped deal included a $50 million up-front payment and up to $25 million in earn-outs. The two companies have however, entered into an advertising services agreement and WebMD has acquired a minority preferred interest in MTS. Financial terms of this deal has also not been disclosed.

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Adconion, an online ad network, has acquired RedLever, a Santa Monica, Calif. based content distribution network. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Adconion has raised $80 million in their third round of funding earlier this year from Index Ventures and Wellington Partners, some of which are now put to use. As part of Adconion, RedLever will develop and distribute branded video entertainment created specifically for agencies and advertisers across the Adconion.TV network which launched last month.

“As more dollars shift online and are drawn to high quality content we are forging ahead to evolve the ad network model into a next generation television network,” said Tyler Moebius, Founder and CEO, Adconion.

Press Release

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TiVo, the DVR maker is also interested in laying off some of its staff, according to Silicon Alley Insider. The exact number and timeline of the layoffs has not been disclosed by the company in its SEC filing. But the company has made it clear that the layoffs will happen:

On November 18, 2008, we commenced a plan to reduce our operational expenses, primarily through a reduction in headcount, as we manage through the challenges presented by a difficult economic climate and a rapidly evolving retail consumer market.

We expect to incur pre-tax charges of approximately $1 million, primarily for employee-related severance benefits and out-placement costs. We expect to record these charges in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2009 ending January 31, 2009. Substantially all of these charges will result in cash expenditures.

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Akamai, the content delivery network has announced that it would be laying off 110 employees or about 7% of its workforce, according to an SEC Filing. The company expects to incur approximately $6.0 million in cash expenses due to these changes as a result of severance and similar personnel-related expenses:

As a result of these cost-cutting measures, the Company expects to incur aggregate restructuring charges and other costs of approximately $4.0 million in the fourth quarter of 2008. These anticipated charges consist of approximately $3.8 million for severance and similar personnel-related expenses and approximately $0.2 million in other costs. These costs are expected to be partially offset by a net reduction in non-cash stock-based compensation of $0.8 million, reflecting a modification to certain stock-based awards previously granted to the affected employees. Additionally, the Company expects to recognize a loss on sublease income of approximately $2.5 million related to certain leased facilities. The Company expects to incur total cash expenditures of approximately $6.0 million in connection with these cost-reduction measures.

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In addition to this Strands, a social recommendation engine, has also followed Qik’s lead and have let go 14 people, which amounts to exactly 10% of their workforce. Strands is seemingly flush with capital and has raised $55 million in venture funding to this date.

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Finjan, a San Jose, Calif. based web gateway security startup, has raised $22 million in venture funding led by HarbourVest Partners, with participation from Benchmark Capital, Israel Seed Partners, Benhamou Global Ventures and Cisco. Finjan integrates several security engines into a single appliance that stop crimeware, malware and data leakage. Finjan’s appliances are being used by over a million users in more than a thousand corporations worldwide.

John Vigouroux, President and CEO of Finjan said on the occassion that:

We are excited to close this investment round now, especially considering the current economic downturn. Thanks to Finjan’s employees and executive team, we achieved record sales as well as major competitive wins. Our patented technology is favored by analysts and customers alike, which enables us to provide outstanding products and solutions. We are proud of our ability to maintain our exceptional high-level of customers’ satisfaction and of the high renewal rates with existing customers - all achieved with an efficient operational structure. Since the market evolved from URL filtering and Anti-Virus into a composite SWG market, Finjan’s Secure Web Gateway is perfectly positioned to serve this $1B market with its unique product offering.

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Sonic Solutions, the digital media company has acquired CinemaNow, an online movie service for a mere $3 million, according to Paid Content. The move shows that a lot of consolidation is going on the video and media industry and is going on at a rapid pace. Movielink, a rival sservice was acquired by Blockbuster for a fire-sale price of $7 million last year. Paid Content has some more historical details about CinemaNow:

Cinemanow, founded in 1999, was backed by Lionsgate, but never really took off, and had been languishing from slow growth, as other online TV-focused (and more open) rivals like YouTube, Hulu and others took off. It was one of the first ones to offer DVD burning with some movies, and also offered limited “day and date” download and DVD burning; it was also one of the first ones to be embedded with devices such as Dell, HP, Samsung, TiVo, DivX, and Archos, but adoption was minimal.

The company CEO Curt Marvis left earlier this year to join Lionsgate as its new president of digital media. In 2006, it received $20.3 million in late stage (fifth round) funding, from Echostar and Japanese mobile content giant Index Holdings (JSD: 4835). Previous investors included Transcosmos, Cisco Systems, Lionsgate and Menlo Venture. Total money invested was more than $40 million.

Press Release

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