Tag Archives: Microsoft Corporation
Gannett Acquires 10% Stake In CareerBuilder From Tribune For $135 Million
Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE:GCI) has bought 10% of CareerBuilder.com from Tribune Company for $135 million. After this acquisition, Gannett now owns 50.8% of CareerBuilder. Based on the equity acquisition, CareerBuilder is worth about $1.35 billion. CareerBuilder’s rival, Monster Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ:MNST) is worth about $2.37 billion based on it’s market capitalization.
“CareerBuilder is a terrific company, with great growth potential that just keeps delivering more for Gannett and our partners,” stated Craig Dubow, Chairman, President, and CEO of Gannett Co., Inc. “We were delighted when the opportunity arose to acquire more of the company while maintaining a good, solid relationship with our partners.”
Tribune Company has been struggling to pay off $13 billion in debt. A lot of the debt was accumulated by taking their company private and from a decrease in advertising revenue. Some of Tribune Company potential strategies for paying off their debt includes selling the Chciago Cubs and Wrigley Field. Tribune is even debating whether to sell off the Chicago Tribune Tower and the L.A. Times.
Tribune Company now owns 30.8% of Careerbuilder.com. Other owners in Careerbuilder includes The McClatchy Company (NYSE:MNI) at 14.4% and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) at 4%.
For additional details, check out the press release.
Microsoft & 12 Others To Invest In NHK’s First Japanese English-Language Broadcasting Service
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), NTT Communications Corporation, ITOCHU Corporation, and 10 other companies will be investing in a new English-language Japanese broadcasting channel. The channel will be created by the Japan Broadcasting Corporation (also known as NHK).
Japan International Broadcasting Inc. will have about 390 million Yen to put the channel together. After the 13 investors buy shares, NHK will own about 60% of the channel. Other investors include Nippon Television Network Corporation, Tokyo Broadcasting System Inc., two other TV channel companies, and Mizuho Corporate Bank.
Microsoft will be helping NHK broadcast the content on the Internet according to Thomson Financial.
Microsoft Research Launches AutoCollage 2008
Microsoft Research has unleashed a new application called AutoCollage 2008. AutoCollage allows users to take a photos from hard drives and websites, then create a collage. The software is Picasa-like and the features are Slide.com-like. This is the first incubation software that came from Microsoft’s Research Lab in Cambridge, United Kingdom.
The software is available free for 30 days or $19.95 for the non-trial version (£19.90 in the U.K). The service was announced on The Windows Vista Blog. While Picasa already allows this feature
Picasa already has a collage feature built-in for free, but Microsoft is charging for software that only focuses on the collage feature. Why? If anyone uses the AutoCollage, comment here and let us know if it is worth the price.
Categories Microsoft Corporation, Picasa
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Microsoft To Launch Office Live Workspace Before End of 2008
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is making some of the final development touches on Office Live Workspace. Office Live Workspace is a direct competitor of Google’s online office suite, Google Docs & Spreadsheets.
Microsoft Office Live Workspace has been used by over about 1 million users. The goal for launching the full version of the online Microsoft Office suite is by the end of 2008. Office Live Workspace has support for 11 languages and plans to support 37 by the end of the year.
Categories Microsoft Corporation
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Microsoft Reveals SkyMarket and Windows Mobile 7 In Job Posting
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is plotting a competitor for the Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android Store and the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) App Store. Microsoft is developing a store that is tentatively called SkyMarket.
SkyMarket won’t be launched until 2009 when the Windows Mobile 7 operating system is released. The revealing of SkyMarket was discovered by a job posting with the following credentials:
Categories Microsoft Corporation
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Microsoft To Acquire Online Survey Firm, Greenfield for $486 Million
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) announced today that they will be acquiring Greenfield Online, Inc. (NASDAQ:SRVY) for roughly $486 million. Greenfield Online is an online survey company that collects opinions on products and services.
Greenfield is based in Wilton, Connecticut and also owns Ciao, a price comparison shopping website. Greenfield and Ciao will be integrated into Windows Live Search. Ciao has consumer reviews of books, DVDs, music, gadgets, mortgages, appliances, ISPs, etc. Ciao generates about 26.5 million unique visitors per month.
Microsoft will buy Greenfield through the purchase of all of Greenfield’s shares at $17.50 per share. Greenfield’s current stock price is $17.37 per share. Greenfield’s stock was at about $15.98 right before the announcement.
Greenfield has an Internet survey company that Microsoft intends to sell after the acqusition closes. Microsoft already found an unnamed buyer for the business. This is may have something to do with the news about Microsoft thinking of selling Avenue A/Razorfish to WPP.
Microsoft beat Quadrangle LLC to the acquisition of Greenfield. Quadrangle made an offer to acquire Greenfield at $15.50 per share. Greenfield published a press release stating that:
“Immediately prior to entry into the merger agreement with Microsoft it
had terminated its previously announced merger agreement with
affiliates of Quadrangle Group LLC.”
Greenfield will have to pay $5 million to kill the deal with Quadrangle.
Related Links:
1. Yahoo! Finance
2. Greenfield
3. Ciao
Zune Boards, A Zune Forum & Blog Created By 15 Year Old, Hansup Yoon Sells For $62,000
Zune Boards is a forum and blog that is run by 15 year old, Hansup Yoon. Zune Boards is a community site that is dedicated to promoting the news of the Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) Zune. J. Allard should be proud.
Zune Boards generated about $1,000 per month profit before being sold. The forum has about 60,000 users. The forum was bought for $62,000 by CrowdGather, Inc. CrowdGather is a Woodland Hills, Calif. based community built around forums. To date, CrowdGather has bought over 70 forum sites.
Yoon created the forum a few months before Microsoft introduced the Zune to the market.
“It was the most perfect time to start a Web site about Zune, and I was
one of the first few to create a Zune-related site,” stated Yoon. Yoon built the forum using MyBBoard and then later switched to vBulletin and Joomla. The forum was sold on SitePoint.
“Bidding was getting close to the Buy It Now price, and I didn’t want
to lose (ZuneBoards) over a few thousand dollars,” stated CrowdGather’s
founder, Sanjay Sabnani.
Related Links:
1. ZuneBoards
1. paidContent
2. OC Register
Categories CrowdGather Inc., Microsoft Corporation, Zune Boards, ZuneBoards.com
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Microsoft Corporation Invests In Move Networks, Inc.
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has invested in Move Networks, Inc. to help support the company’s initiative to develop video technology using Microsoft Silverlight. The official announcement should be released soon on Microsoft PressPass.
Although it is not known how much was invested by Microsoft, a source claims that it was an add-on investment on a $46 million Series C that closed last summer. Other investors that participated in Move’s Series C includes Comcast, Cisco Systems, Benchmark Capital, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, and Steamboat Ventures. Move is now valuated at around $150 million.
Related Link:
1. PEHub
Microsoft In Talks To Sell Avenue A/Razorfish To WPP Group
WPP Group plc (NASDAQ:WPPGY) and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) are currently in talks about the sale of aQuantive’s Avenue A/Razorfish. When Microsoft acquired aQuantive, Inc. last year for about $6 billion, the software giant company also absorbed the Avenue A/Razorfish subsidiary.
Avenue A/Razorfish has the ad-serving technology that powers WPP’s subsidiary, 24/7 Real Media. Microsoft is considering exchanging Avenue A/Razorfish to WPP in exchange for access to 24/7′s Open AdStream services and cash.
“There remains a limit to the available talent that can be hired to pursue the rapid increase in interactive marketing-communications programs that customers are demanding,” stated John Prunier, co-founder of Petsky Prunier, an M&A advisory company. “In order to meet that need, agency holding companies and other marketing-communications businesses are going to have to acquire businesses/agencies that possess those skills.”
Of all of aQuantive’s subsidiary companies, Avenue A/Razorfish generates 60% of the revenue. Given aQuantive’s revenue of $345 million over the last year, Avenue A accounted for about $69 million. And based on the assumption that digital ad agencies are typically valuated at 10 times the amount of their annual revenue, Avenue A becomes worth close to $800 million. For that price, it does not become worth selling. This is why Microsoft is considering sharing assets with WPP rather than just cash and stock options.
To make the deal even more complicated, Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) has a multi-year advertising partnership with 24/7 Real Media. And Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) also has an advertising partnership with Yahoo! Throw Microsoft in the mix as a potential 24/7 Real Media partner and that just makes things more interesting for WPP.
Related Link:
1. AdAge
Categories aQuantive Inc., Avenue A-Razorfish, Microsoft Corporation, WPP Group
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So What Is The Deal With Vista? Microsoft Hires Seinfeld.
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has a $300 million budget for their advertising budget. Microsoft signed Jerry Seinfeld as their advertising spokesperson for Windows Vista in a deal worth $10 million. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is also known for hiring celebrity spokespeople. When Vista was released, Apple celebrity spokesmen, John Hodgman acted as a PC and Justin Long acted as a Mac to satire Microsoft.
Seinfeld will appear in commercials with Bill Gates. The slogan of Microsoft’s campaign is “Windows, Not Walls” as a point that Windows is used to help break down wall barriers in connecting with others. The campaign is set to debut on September 4. Windows Vista has a negative perception in the media and Microsoft wants to reverse it.
Supposedly Microsoft considered other celebrities such as Will Ferrell and Chris Rock.
Last month Steve Ballmer sent out an e-mail to Microsoft employees. “In the weeks ahead, we’ll launch a campaign to address any lingering doubts our customers may have about Windows Vista.” Microsoft plans to provide “a more comprehensive effort to redefine the meaning and value of Windows for our customers,” added Ballmer.
Crispin Porter + Bogusky came up with the new advertising campaign. Microsoft cancelled their deal with McCann Erickson to handle the campaign. McCann is now working directly the promotion of the XBox.
Related Link:
1. WSJ
Categories Microsoft Corporation
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