Yahoo has announced that it will be acquiring Associated Content, a producer of content for the web that stands alongside the likes of Demand Media and AOL's Seed.
The details of the deal have yet to be made public but at least two sources mention that the price Yahoo paid for the outfit lies between $90 million and $100 million, which anyway is much smaller than the $150 million that AC wanted only a few months ago.
As part of Yahoo, Associated Content will be able to access more than 600 million users monthly and the acquisition kind of make sense for Yahoo who has been looking to move away from search since its strategic partnership with Microsoft allowed it to refocus on marketing and advertising.
But for some reason, rather than following AOL which passed on the opportunity of buying AC last year only to launch its own rival, Seed, Yahoo apparently wanted to move faster into the crowded content crowdsourcing field.
t does give the former darling of the internet a ready to use platform and a solution that can churn out content cheaply. AC is only five years old but has nearly 400,000 contributors who together have published more than two million pieces of content which have generated 1.75 billion page views.
Arguably the risk here is that it heralds a new era where search engines and portals produce their own content, a very dangerous and slippery slope indeed for them and other content producers.
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Sunnyvale, Calif. â - May 18, 2010 - Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Associated Content Inc. This strategic move extends Yahoo's ability to provide high quality, personally relevant content for the benefit of more than 600 million users as well as tens of thousands of advertisers. As Yahoo! enhances its social, mobile, local, and media offerings, the acquisition of Associated Content reinforces the company's longstanding promise to offer the best of the Web — by combining Associated Content's approximately 380,000 contributors who provide rich and varied content on a broad array of passion points, with Yahoo's leadership in partnering with established content brands and the award-winning team of editors and experts from Yahoo!.
"Combining our world-class editorial team with Associated Content's makes this a game-changer," said Carol Bartz, CEO, Yahoo! Inc. "Together, we'll create more content around what we know our users care about, and open up new and creative avenues for advertisers to engage with consumers across our network. These are important aspects of building engaging consumer experiences on Yahoo!, and one of the reasons why we're one of the most visited destinations online."
"The Associated Content team and our 380,000 contributors are looking forward to joining Yahoo! and to the opportunities that being part of a global Internet brand presents," said Luke Beatty, Associated Content founder and president. "Combining our crowd sourced content with Yahoo!'s distribution, world class editorial team and online marketing leadership will accelerate our growth as we continue to leverage our best-of-breed platform to deliver high quality compelling content on more than 60,000 topics."
For advertisers, this deal will expand Yahoo! into more topic areas and real-time content generation. The combination promises to offer advertisers even more opportunities to engage groups of passionate consumers in ways they will find uniquely appealing to their interests and tastes. Having insight into user intent through its leading search products enables Yahoo! to identify topics important to advertisers and users. Yahoo! plans to use Associated Content to create content around those topics and leverage Associated Content to contribute content to existing media properties. Associated Content also provides more opportunities for Yahoo! to partner and collaborate with publishers who can help the company shape the tremendous variety of content coming in, into something bespoke and even more engaging.
While current Associated Content content is U.S.-centric, Yahoo! expects to scale the platform globally.
Associated Content was founded by Luke Beatty in Denver, Colorado, in 2004. Associated Content receives more than 16 million unique users per month (comScore) and the editorial staff reviews more than 50,000 pieces of content per month, including articles, images, audio and video. Yahoo! expects to complete this acquisition in the third quarter of 2010. Financial terms were not disclosed.
About Yahoo!Yahoo! attracts hundreds of millions of users every month through its innovative technology and engaging content and services, making it one of the most visited Internet destinations and a world-class online media company. Yahoo!'s vision is to be the center of people's online lives by delivering personally relevant, meaningful Internet experiences. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. For more information, visit pressroom.yahoo.com or the company's blog, Yodel Anecdotal (yodel.yahoo.com).
Yahoo! is the trademark and/or registered trademark of Yahoo! Inc. All other names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective owners.
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