Specific Media Buys MySpace; WPP Group And Google Spar; AdSafe Media Sees Growth

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Specific Media, MySpace Inked

Kara Swisher said yesterday that the deal for MySpace was almost done – and then it was done! – as ad network Specific Media bought the company for a rumored $35 million – AND Justin Timberlake is investing in the process. As Swisher points out, News Corp. originally beat out Viacom with a price of $580 million for MySpace in 2005. Read more. So, is Sumner Redstone apologizing to Tom Freston somewhere? Nevertheless, don’t forget News Corp had a crazy $900 million search and ads deal with the Google for a little less than 4 years. It didn’t last forever but that was some nice gravy. Finally, trend watch: an ad network is buying a publisher yet again similar to ValueClick’s deal for Investopedia etal. Ad networks can leverage the site’s data trove in addition to selling the media placements. Those Myspace logins can help on-board offline data in addition to offering a deeper data dive, in general. Need more? – read Edmund Lee’s interview with Specific Media CEO Tim Vanderhoek in Ad Age where he says, “We’re a digital media company.”

WPP And Google: Frienemy Fireworks

WPP CEO Sir Martin Sorrell took part in a 90-minute Q&A as part of a charity event in London this week. According to Brand Republic, during the program’s audience participation section, he was confronted by Google sales director Mark Howe. Sorrell had just suggested that competition with Google was like a “$15bn minnow wrestling with a $167bn orangutan.” Howe went right to the real-time bidding question and “asked when initiatives like Xaxis would be able to change the business model of television and make it auction-based in real-time.” Though Sorrell apparently admitted it hadn’t happened yet, he went back at the Google director “about Google denying his group access to its data.” Read more about the frienemy fireworks.

Quantcast Gets Googler

Quantcast announced that former Google GDN, display ad exec Jag Duggal has been hired as VP of product management. According to the release, he’ll be responsible for “strategic positioning, development and management of the company’s product set, including its targeted display advertising and audience measurement solutions.” Is this a next milestone in Quantcast’s display ad, media business? Read more.

Verification Update

Ad verification tech company AdSafe Media put out a press release saying that in the first half of 2011 “it has doubled the number of relationships with premier brands to over 200 Advertisers world-wide using its Firewall Prevention solutions.” The company claims that its Firewall Blocking solution is behind the growth. Read more.

Understanding Tags

Tag management platform TagMan is making available its December 2010, commissioned white paper from Forrester Research called “How Tag Management Improves Web Intelligence.” Though missing Demdex and BlueKai from its tag management, competitive set breakdown, Forrester’s Joe Stanhope talks through some of the pain points in the tag management biz as well as the solutions. Get your copy here (pay with some PII).

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Was RTB, Now RTBT

In her Behavioral Insider column on MediaPost, Laurie Sullivan introduces the world to a new acronym: “While some brands want to downplay the fact they use targeting services, Rocket Fuel executives continue to tout what founder and CEO George John calls ‘real-time’ BT.” That’s right – RTBT! Read the whole story here.

eBay [cough] Fetchback Pumps Retargeting

eBay-owned Fetchback, which is part of the recently acquired GSI Commerce unit, announced “new features” for its retargeting products including campaign-level pricing which means, “Advertisers can now set different pricing and goals determined by the kind of result they are seeking – either a purchase or an engagement. (…) FetchBack aims to increase purchases and build customer loyalty and brand engagement.” Read more.

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