Microsoft announced yesterday that they are the exclusive provider for advertising on The Wall Street Journal web site.  This is a big win for the Redmond, Wash.-based software conglomerate.  Microsoft has similar deals with Digg and Facebook.

Through this deal, Microsoft will also power the ads for Barrons.com, MarketWatch.com, AllThingsD.com, and other WSJ-owned online properties. 

“Relevant and targeted digital advertising is important to our business and to the quality of the experience that we deliver to our users,” stated Gordon McLeod, President of The Wall Street Journal Digital Network. “Microsoft’s state-of-the-art advertising platform will enable us to dramatically improve our revenues from this key sector, and we look forward to working together.”

Altogether, the websites in The Wall Street Journal Digital Network generate 20 million unique visitors per month.  The Microsoft ads will start appearing in February.

“This deal is a significant win for Microsoft for two key reasons. First, it makes the extended Microsoft advertising network the premier destination for advertisers interested in reaching financially minded users, as it complements our offering in this vertical through MSN Money and other syndication partners,” stated Brian McAndrews, Senior VP of Advertiser and Publisher Solutions at Microsoft. “Second, this deal is a strong indicator that we’re gaining significant traction with our advertising platform. The Wall Street Journal Digital Network is one of the largest financial services publishers in a very dynamic vertical segment, and we’re delighted to add it to our portfolio.”

Microsoft affirmed their position in the digital advertising industry through its acquisition of aQuantive for $6 billion in May 2007.

[Information Source: Microsoft PressPass]

Talk about irony. I just renewed my subscription to WSJ.com for $9.95/month today and Kevin Rose up and decides that “The Wall Street Journal Online is adding Digg buttons across the entire site, and you’ll now have full (free) access to the articles submitted to Digg. The Digg buttons have started appearing on WSJ.com articles tonight [Digg blog].”

Did I read that correctly? WSJ.com articles that are submitted to Digg can now be read for free? What if I use my Digg account to submit every WSJ.com article I’m interested in, just so I can read it for free and save myself the $9.95/month? Or wait, I have a better idea, how about Rupert Murdoch hurries up, buys Dow Jones and WSJ.com, and makes WSJ.com for free like he said he was going to.

Regardless, I think this is a great move for WSJ.com. Its great to see big media companies embrace Web 2.0 technologies like Digg and Sphere. Digg users will have access to more information. WSJ gets more people to read their content, thus generating higher advertising revenue. But I think for publishers like myself, WSJ adding Sphere is a bigger deal because it gives us an avenue to promote our related content and opinions on the WSJ also.

The Wall Street Journal is a part of American history and has set the standards for today’s journalism. I’d say the Journal is nothing short of being the world’s most renown newspaper. Everyday the Journal makes its way to the doorstep of millions of households all over the nation and its content reaches people all over the world. And now, News Corp. has wrapped its icy grip around it through its definitive agreement with Dow Jones & Company Inc. News Corp. is putting up $5.6 billion to do so.

“It appears that News Corp. is set to enjoy a successful ending to its masterful pursuit of Dow Jones,” stated Deutsche Bank analyst, Doug Mitchelson. “Cost synergies should be meaningful and could offset the dilution the market fears from the deal.”

If I were to summarize my thoughts in a couple words about the parent company of MySpace, News Corporation’s definitive agreement of the Dow Jones/The Wall Street Journal announced today, they would be: “total clusterf**k [pardon my language].” Why do I say this? I don’t trust the spam, porn, and pedophiles that are constantly crawling on MySpace whatsoever. Now take the exact opposite and you get the WSJ. The WSJ stands for education, sophistication, and global progression. These two companies mix just as well as water and oil.

Any thoughts? MySpace lovers, try to be unbiased in comments.

Brad Greenspan, the former President of eUniverse (later renamed Intermix Media Inc.), sent a letter to Dow Jones & Company Inc. today stating that he has 5 investors interested in a transaction with him for ownership in The Wall Street Journal.

Greenspan mentioned in the letter that a possible result of the transaction can include a joint venture.  Through the join venture, three new businesses could be created called WSJUSLIve, WSJAsiaLive, and WSJEuropeLive.  Greenspan would also drive for WSJ content to be delivered in video forms as well.  The five groups and Greenspan would invest $300 million in cash.

In reference to News Corp.’s bid for Dow Jones, Greenspan stated, “It is not too late for the directors to fulfill their fiduciary responsibility to shareholders and initiate a true sales process.”  According to Wikipedia, Greenspan published “The MySpace Report,” which claimed that News Corp. unfairly determined the valuation of MySpace.  MySpace was owned by Intermix before the acquisition.

References:
[1] Thomson Financial: Greenspan has more Dow Jones support (via CNNMoney.com)
[2] Wikipedia: MySpace - Brad Greenspan / The MySpace Report

Bambi Francisco is a former correspondent of the technology section at MarketWatch. MarketWatch is owned by Dow Jones. Utilizing her connections with venture capitalists, Bambi went on to start up her own company called Vator.TV.

The purpose of Vator.TV will be for entrepreneurs to pitch their ideas and thoughts through video. Amazon is powering the video streaming. The name comes from “elevator” in the context of the concept of the elevator pitch.

The funding came from various sources and the amount was not disclosed. Richard Rosenblatt, the former CEO of Intermix was an investor. Intermix is the company that owned MySpace which is now owned by News Corporation. Georges Harik, a developer of Google AdSense also joined as an investor. Peter Thiel, the former CEO of PayPal Inc. and Matthew Hill, an early investor in Shopping.com (which was acquired by eBay in June 2005 for $635 million) both joined in for funding.

Below is a video of Bambi being interviewed by Mr. Thiel:

Information Source: [VentureBeat]

Yesterday, I wrote about some big news by Dow Jones & Company Inc.  They are acquiring eFinancialNews for $51.8 million.  Now The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), a Dow Jones publication is launching a spin-off website called AllThingsD.com (The “D” stands for Digital).

The producers of AllThingsD is Walt Mossberg and and Kara Swisher.  Mossberg is the creator and author of the Personal Technology column in The WSJ since 1991.  Swisher is the author of a section called “BoomTown” which appears on the Marketplace frontpage in The WSJ.

John Paczkowski, a previous Good Morning Silicon Valley correspondent is also joining on board for the project.  The website is expected to launch tomorrow.

Dow Jones & Company, a firm that is listed under the New York Stock Exchange as DJ has announced that it has entered agreements to acquire eFinancialNews Holdings, Ltd., a U.K. based website that serves financial content.  The amount would be for ₤26.1 million (equivalent of $51.8 million).

eFinancialNews provides weekly news publications, weekly European Private Equity articles, and also offers training events for those who are interested in investment banking, private equity, trading, and asset management.

“Acquiring eFinancialNews is wholly consistent with our mission to serve customers with indispensable business and related content wherever, however and whenever they desire,” stated Rich Zannino, the CEO of Dow Jones. “eFinancialNews is a very well-run multimedia company with highly regarded brands, content, products and services. Its fast-growing print, online, training and events businesses will enhance the growth and profitability of our European consumer and enterprise media operations and add successful digital and other non-print businesses to help diversify our reliance on traditional print revenue.”

eFinancialNews’ revenue for 2007 was ₤15.4 million (equal to $30.55 million).  The transaction is expected to close by the end of the 2nd quarter.