Home Ad Exchange News The Aol-Microsoft-Yahoo! Display Deal; Engaging Ads At IAB Ops; Video Ads Growing

The Aol-Microsoft-Yahoo! Display Deal; Engaging Ads At IAB Ops; Video Ads Growing

SHARE:

Premium Not GuaranteedHere’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign-up here.

Pooling Inventory

ClickZ’s Zach Rodgers sees challenges for the new Yahoo!/Aol/Microsoft coalition with operations, data ownership and “a third danger is that the integration could remove the differentiating audience characteristics of the companies’ three ad network products: Yahoo’s Network Plus, AOL’s Advertising.com, and the Microsoft Media Network. Those networks will still offer unique data and other capabilities.” Commoditization nation?

Entrepreneurialism’s Siren Song

The New York Times’ Saul Hansell, wait, no, I mean Aol’s Saul Hansell, wait, no, not anymore. Hansell has left Aol’s Patch unit and says on his personal blog, “Now it’s time to strike out on my own and seek my fortune as an inventor. I’ve left AOL, and Monday I started as an entrepreneur in residence at Betaworks.” To err is human, to EIR is divine. Read more.

Interacting With Media

Reporting from Monday’s IAB Ad Operations Summit, VentureBeat’s Erica Berger says more interactive ad formats were a theme of the gathering and that there is a “change in popularity of various ad sizes, but most importantly, the change in where users are consuming their content (i.e. on mobile and tablet devices rather than on desktop). With the shift to the mobile web, advertisers are being forced to create more interactive and engaging units.” Read more.

DSP Can Mean Many Things

It’s a DSP! But, not quite the DSP you’re thinking of. Limelight Networks, former owners of rich media company Eyewonder, announced its foray into the dynamic-site platform (DSP!) world for mobile. From the release, “Limelight Dynamic Site Platform for Mobile is built on the company’s cloud-based Dynamic Site Platform to integrate all web content management tasks.” Read it.

Match My Audience

Yahoo! launched two new ad products from the Yahoo! Advertising blog yesterday. First, it announced a new geotargeting solution called Proximity Match which it says allows local retailers to target consumers which are close to their store, for example. (Sounds like good ol’ geotargeting within a given radius.) Also the company announced a new product informed by data from Nielsen Catalina Solutions called Consumer Direct which combines in-store purchase data with Yahoo! user online data – kinda like an online-offline cookie matching service. Read more.

Subscribe

AdExchanger Daily

Get our editors’ roundup delivered to your inbox every weekday.

Specify The Next Job

Reuters reports that software and digital analytics company Adobe plans to lay off 7% of its workforce. From the release, “The 750 positions to be eliminated — spanning all business units and geographies — reflect shifts in investment toward digital media and marketing, changing priorities, and reductions in unspecified projects.” Tip: Always make sure your job is specified. Read more.

Channel Momentum

CEO Brian Lesser of WPP/Group M trading desk Xaxis answers questions for an interview on Direct Marketing News. Lesser details the expanding global footprint of his company and says, “Video is the fastest growing part of our business right now. What we’re seeing is that while display tends to attract direct response advertisers, video has been more successful in attracting brand advertisers…” Read more.

But Wait. There’s More!

Must Read

Jamie Seltzer, global chief data and technology officer, Havas Media Network, speaks to AdExchanger at CES 2026.

CES 2026: What’s Real – And What’s BS – When It Comes To AI

Ad industry experts call out trends to watch in 2026 and separate the real AI use cases having an impact today from the AI hype they heard at CES.

New Startup Pinch AI Tackles The Growing Problem Of Ecommerce Return Scams

Fraud is eating into retail profits. A new startup called Pinch AI just launched with $5 million in funding to fight back.

Comic: Shopper Marketing Data

CPG Data Seller SPINS Moves Into Media With MikMak Acquisition

On Wednesday, retail and CPG data company SPINS added a new piece with its acquisition of MikMak, a click-to-buy ad tech and analytics startup that helps optimize their commerce media.

Privacy! Commerce! Connected TV! Read all about it. Subscribe to AdExchanger Newsletters

How Valvoline Shifted Marketing Gears When It Became A Pure-Play Retail Brand

Believe it or not, car oil change service company Valvoline is in the midst of a fascinating retail marketing transformation.

AdExchanger's Big Story podcast with journalistic insights on advertising, marketing and ad tech

The Big Story: Live From CES 2026

Agents, streamers and robots, oh my! Live from the C-Space campus at the Aria Casino in Las Vegas, our team breaks down the most interesting ad tech trends we saw at CES this year.

Monopoly Man looks on at the DOJ vs. Google ad tech antitrust trial (comic).

2025: The Year Google Lost In Court And Won Anyway

From afar, it looks like Google had a rough year in antitrust court. But zoom in a bit and it becomes clear that the past year went about as well as Google could have hoped for.