CMO Today: Verizon Confirms $4.8 Billion Acquisition of Yahoo
July 25 2016 - 12:31PM
Dow Jones News
By Mike Shields
YAHOO ON THE VERIZON: In a story that will surprise almost no
one in the media industry -- but might have blown your mind in the
late '90s -- Yahoo has found a new home, and it's inside Verizon
Communications, alongside old rival AOL. The $4.83 billion
acquisition of Yahoo's core internet business and some real estate
is a dramatic ending for the beleaguered web company once valued at
more than $125 billion, reports The Wall Street Journal. The
combined group is expected to mount on all-out assault on digital
ad giants Google and Facebook, particularly in mobile. It's an
anticlimactic end for the Marissa Mayer era at Yahoo, given there's
no question that much of Yahoo's core business is in decline.
Monday morning's statement made no mention of Ms. Mayer's role, or
lack thereof, after the deal, but it did quote her as saying, "It's
poetic to be joining forces with AOL and Verizon as we enter our
next chapter." She stands to walk with more than $50 million if
she's terminated as part of the sale.
HILLARY'S TURN: Last week, the Republican National Convention
provided a rare four-night summer ratings bonanza for the broadcast
and cable news networks. There were allegations of speech
plagiarism and delegates booing Ted Cruz for his non-endorsement,
and it was all capped off with a whopping 32.2 million viewers
tuning in to see Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump talk
up his promises to restore law and order (not the NBC show). Can
the Democratic convention offer anything to match all that drama as
Hillary Clinton is formally nominated as their candidate? They've
lined up speakers including President Barack Obama, Bill Clinton
and even Mike Bloomberg, who hasn't been a Democrat since 2000. But
the real interest may stem from the behind-the-scenes scandal that
erupted over the weekend when a trove of hacked emails were leaked
showing that Democratic National Committee officials had worked to
undermine Bernie Sanders's campaign, leading to the resignation of
Debbie Wasserman Schultz as chairwoman of the DNC.
DNC DRAMA: The political intrigue and fallout from WikiLeaks
releasing a database of more than 19,000 emails from DNC officials
may certainly lead to more interest in this week's convention. But
it's not just ugly politics. The slew of leaked emails indicate the
DNC may have a heavy hand in press coverage of the campaign -- with
a reporter from Politico even sending over an advanced copy of an
article for the DNC to review before it was edited and published,
reports the Huffington Post. Politico, for its part, said that
sharing the full article "was a mistake and not consistent with our
policies," but the outlet also notes there were no substantive
changes to the story. Still, this is not the kind of overly
press-friendly image the Democrats are looking to project this week
as they try and paint the party as serious and professional
compared with Team Trump, nor does it help counter Mr. Trump's
allegations of a liberal bent to the media.
REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAMMATIC: This year, the TV "upfront"
market where advertisers make spending commitments in advance of
the new season was the strongest it has been in years. That
resilience may have put a halt to a common argument from the "TV is
dead" faction of the media industry that TV advertising quickly
must adopt the data and technology methods of digital advertising
in order to survive. Instead, despite all the chatter in recent
years that the big networks were earnestly adopting all sorts of
web-like "programmatic" ad-selling tactics, those offerings mostly
took a back seat this year given the robust ad market, reports CMO
Today. Simply put, if you're a major network and you're pulling in
billions in ad sales doing things the way you've always done them,
why risk the golden goose by forcing a bunch of unproven
digital-like ad deals? That is put programmatic TV on the slow
track.
Elsewhere
Many advertisers have decided to become content creators, but
not many receive artistic acclaim. Guitar manufacturer C.F. Martin
& Co. recently released a 40-minute documentary created by its
ad agency that has been selected for six film festivals. [ CMO
Today]
Time Inc. has reorganized its editorial structure into four
distinct groups, each of which will be led by an editorial
director. [ Adweek]
Guardian Media Group is expected to reveal this week a record
173 million pound full-year loss as the newspaper giant continues
to enact cost-cutting measures. [ FT]
The high-cost music-streaming business is increasingly being led
by technology giants like Apple, Alphabet's Google and Amazon,
which use music streaming to lure people to other products and
services. [ WSJ]
New York Magazine surveyed 113 journalists and media executives
to examine what ails the industry and what media organizations can
do to win back more of the public's trust. [ New York Magazine]
A former North Carolina Supreme Court judge has filed complaints
with both the U.S. Office of Special Counsel and a New York state
ethics panel alleging that a series of taxpayer-funded ads for New
York state potentially affected a recent set of elections in North
Carolina by referencing the state's so-called transgender bathroom
law. [ WSJ]
Pro-Hillary Clinton super PACs are spending heavily on TV and
radio ads in 10 key markets in crucial 2016 swing states, while
Republican candidate Donald Trump largely eschews advertising. [ Ad
Age]
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 25, 2016 12:16 ET (16:16 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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