
AOL Takes Over Majority of Microsoft’s Ad Business, Swaps Google Search for Bing - whatgoodisaroad
http://blogs.wsj.com/cmo/2015/06/29/aol-takes-over-majority-of-microsofts-ad-business-swaps-google-search-for-bing/
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reilly3000
MSFT isn't out of the ad business. They are keeping Bing and likely to make
some interesting new ad units that involve Cortana.

Getting out of display media for them is smart. Fundamentally they are a
software company and there are already players that sell media better than
they can. It isn't a software problem, it's about building sales relationships
with media agencies.

A streamlined P&L and staffing strategy will let them focus on making a
developer-centric product company. They will still make plenty of ad money,
but don't have to staff for it.

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Mahn
The question is whether this deal is about getting out of display advertising
for Microsoft, or simply an effort to push Bing in exchange for the less
performing advertising units. AOL owns a ton of traffic, technically it's a
big win for Bing.

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shostack
I'm just praying it doesn't result in all of the _fun_ that was had when the
Microsoft Yahoo Search Alliance came about.

Anyone who had to deal with the billing headaches at a search agency <raises
hand> does not look fondly at that time.

I wonder what this will do to Search Partner Network performance for AdWords
customers. AOL represented one of the biggest (if not THE biggest) search
partners.

The Search Partner Network is one of the few areas of AdWords that is still a
black box wrt placement-level performance (unlike the GDN). Previously the
only way to get visibility into the AOL portion of it was to run directly with
AOL using AOL's licensed version of the AdWords UI, but with some minor
differences in how you used it.

If the biggest volume driver of Search Partner volume goes _> poof<_ I'd
expect that to noticeably impact performance for Search Partner traffic. Would
love an official comment from Google on this here, on their blog, or through
industry pubs like SearchEngineLand.

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wenbin
My first reaction was: Horizontal and vertical alliances
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warring_States_period#Horizont...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warring_States_period#Horizontal_and_vertical_alliances_.28334-249_BC.29))

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whoisthemachine
Verizon now owns AOL, AOL (Verizon) now has major advertising business,
Microsoft gains additional search share... Google's weight in this business
has definitely managed to create some strange alliances against it.

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pcora
Microsoft choose to sell it all today?

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orik
Microsoft's fiscal year ends tomorrow, so it looks like they're balancing
things out.

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AdieuToLogic
> ... it looks like they're balancing things out.

Or throwing things out?

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jkuria
This is sad if we go by what happens on AdSonar. Lots and lots of fake bot
traffic. Microsoft seemed serious about tackling the problem and were good
about issuing refunds for fraudulent clicks. Not so AOL, Adsonar, Huffpo and
all the properties in their network.

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droopyEyelids
If the bot traffic is factored into the price, what does it matter?

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tootie
Bob Lord of AOL used to be CEO of Razorfish, sibling company to Atlas which
was acquired by Microsoft in 2009 or so to kick start their ad business. When
it flubbed they took a huge write down and just sold it back to Bob Lord.

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blumkvist
They sold Atlas to Facebook, no?

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turingbook
Microsoft is quitting from Internet Business？It also sold part of map business
to Uber

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SEJeff
I'm gonna guess that Google _or_ Bing over AOL's dialup is still awful.

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nacs
Well Verizon (DSL, fiber-optic) bought AOL out recently.

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rayiner
So Verizon just took over Microsoft's ad business?

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discardorama
Display ad business, yes.

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inthewoods
I've long thought that Microsoft should sell off the Bing business - I
recognize that they gain benefits from Bing, but it is fundamentally a
different business that they have shown no little ability to capitalize on for
a long, long time.

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bhaumik
>>Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella, who has been in his post for 17
months, has made clear–including in an employee memo last week–that Microsoft
needs to concentrate on technology areas where it has the biggest
opportunities for success, and make “tough choices” in fringe areas.

So instead of layoffs, they're just selling their employees*?

(Uber deal):
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9799997](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9799997)

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cheriot
You say that in a disparaging way, but this is capitalism at it's finest.
People and IP are moving to where they're more productive.

I'm sure it's jarring to the employees involved, but not nearly as emotionally
and financially draining as knowing that layoffs are coming and scrambling for
a job... at the same time as 1,200 other people with similar qualifications.

