A pairing in the spirit of a superhero teamup could happen if the latest chatter about Yahoo and Microsoft proves true. Once again, a potential merger is being considered, as neither company has made gains against Google's search and advertising dominance.
The Wall Street Journal said last year's talks have become this year's discussions. Both Yahoo and Microsoft have been rejiggering their online advertising products, but have not been able to eat into Google's lead.
"Short of a wholesale merger, Microsoft could spin its online group into a separately-run Yahoo, in return for a Yahoo stake," the WSJ said. "Though a person familiar with the matter says Microsoft would likely want to acquire Yahoo."
Microsoft would have to take on some debt to do that, despite its massive pile of cash and equivalents. Yahoo is up to a market cap of over $38 billion, thanks to rumors of the Microsoft talks that began in the New York Post.
The Post carried a story earlier in the week that claimed Microsoft was ready to purchase 24/7 Real Media, in order to offset Google's DoubleClick deal as well as Yahoo's Right Media purchase. A Microsoft spokesperson would not comment on the story to WebProNews, citing the article as rumors and speculation.
If Microsoft were to make a deal with Yahoo, the WSJ thinks there could be some massive upheaval in Yahoo's executive ranks. Considering Yahoo's performance for shareholders over the past couple of years, it's hard to think of that as a negative here.
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Saturday, August 11, 2007
Yahoo Again Linked To Partner Click Fraud
In April 2006, spyware researcher Ben Edelman implicated Yahoo in click fraud problems stemming from the company's arrangements with a trio of third parties delivering phantom clicks on ads. Those clicks cost legitimate advertisers money, while Yahoo and the company enabling that click profit each time.
BusinessWeek's recent expos of click fraud provided more ammunition for critics of search advertising companies like Yahoo and Google. Greater calls for transparency of how those businesses protect against fake clicks will be a hot topic this fall.
Part of the BusinessWeek report focused on the saga of advertiser MostChoice.com. That website's CEO, Martin Fleischmann, claimed click fraud cost his firm a significant sum, and blamed Oemji for this:
(I)n the past year, Yahoo charged the online financial-information provider an estimated $10,300 for 2,690 clicks from visitors to Oemji. Ninety percent of the clicks came from such places as Mongolia, Vietnam, and Honduras, where MostChoice does no business. Only eight clicks, less than 0.3%, turned into sales, compared with 30% or more from clicks on ads on Yahoo's own Web site.
Oemji's parent firm, Oemtec, may be receiving more scrutiny from Yahoo. The article cited Yahoo's Joshua Meyers, a senior director of the search engine's publisher network group, in noting the company would review its connection to Oemji.
Oemtec contested accusations of illicit activity that would be counter to its partnership agreement with Yahoo:
Oemtec calls the negative ratings of its products "patently and demonstrably false." Oemji Bar is similar to toolbars distributed by major online companies, and SpySpotter "is a legitimate and effective anti-spyware application," Craig Marcus, an attorney for the company, said in a Sept. 8 letter to BusinessWeek. Denying any involvement in click fraud, Marcus wrote: "Every single Oemji-generated click to MostChoice.com, and every other Web site, was and remains legitimate and genuine."
As of this month, the report noted Yahoo still has its partnership with Oemtec in force, and delivers advertising to the Oemji product.
BusinessWeek's recent expos of click fraud provided more ammunition for critics of search advertising companies like Yahoo and Google. Greater calls for transparency of how those businesses protect against fake clicks will be a hot topic this fall.
Part of the BusinessWeek report focused on the saga of advertiser MostChoice.com. That website's CEO, Martin Fleischmann, claimed click fraud cost his firm a significant sum, and blamed Oemji for this:
(I)n the past year, Yahoo charged the online financial-information provider an estimated $10,300 for 2,690 clicks from visitors to Oemji. Ninety percent of the clicks came from such places as Mongolia, Vietnam, and Honduras, where MostChoice does no business. Only eight clicks, less than 0.3%, turned into sales, compared with 30% or more from clicks on ads on Yahoo's own Web site.
Oemji's parent firm, Oemtec, may be receiving more scrutiny from Yahoo. The article cited Yahoo's Joshua Meyers, a senior director of the search engine's publisher network group, in noting the company would review its connection to Oemji.
Oemtec contested accusations of illicit activity that would be counter to its partnership agreement with Yahoo:
Oemtec calls the negative ratings of its products "patently and demonstrably false." Oemji Bar is similar to toolbars distributed by major online companies, and SpySpotter "is a legitimate and effective anti-spyware application," Craig Marcus, an attorney for the company, said in a Sept. 8 letter to BusinessWeek. Denying any involvement in click fraud, Marcus wrote: "Every single Oemji-generated click to MostChoice.com, and every other Web site, was and remains legitimate and genuine."
As of this month, the report noted Yahoo still has its partnership with Oemtec in force, and delivers advertising to the Oemji product.
Yahoo Opens Traffic Quality Center
Yahoo touted its proprietary Click Protection System as the most stringent in the industry, in their humble opinion. If it is that, VP Reggie Davis and the development team have been really busy.
Some of their efforts receive a little publicity on the Traffic Quality Center, recently opened at Yahoo Search Marketing. The company provided some insights into the ways they protect advertising customers.
They also offered a peak at what is to come with their search marketing platform. On quality based pricing:
Later in 2007, we plan to apply quality-based pricing to a broader group of keywords.
There's nothing you need to do to take advantage of quality-based pricing. Discounts are applied automatically based on Yahoo!'s Quality Based Pricing technology.
On domain blocking:
While quality-based pricing provides discounts based on traffic performance, you might identify certain domains that you don't want to receive traffic from due to branding considerations or other reasons. To help meet this need, we plan to launch a product that will provide our advertisers with the controls and tools to block their ads from appearing on certain domains.
Advertisers who want to report possible click fraud but aren't familiar with the procedure can view a walkthrough of the process on the Traffic Quality Center website. Yahoo said they will contact the submitter within 48 hours, and will try to resolve the issue within ten business days.
Some of their efforts receive a little publicity on the Traffic Quality Center, recently opened at Yahoo Search Marketing. The company provided some insights into the ways they protect advertising customers.
They also offered a peak at what is to come with their search marketing platform. On quality based pricing:
Later in 2007, we plan to apply quality-based pricing to a broader group of keywords.
There's nothing you need to do to take advantage of quality-based pricing. Discounts are applied automatically based on Yahoo!'s Quality Based Pricing technology.
On domain blocking:
While quality-based pricing provides discounts based on traffic performance, you might identify certain domains that you don't want to receive traffic from due to branding considerations or other reasons. To help meet this need, we plan to launch a product that will provide our advertisers with the controls and tools to block their ads from appearing on certain domains.
Advertisers who want to report possible click fraud but aren't familiar with the procedure can view a walkthrough of the process on the Traffic Quality Center website. Yahoo said they will contact the submitter within 48 hours, and will try to resolve the issue within ten business days.
The agency that oversees Internet domain names has asked VeriSign to voluntarily suspend a new service that redirects Web surfers to VeriSign's site w
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) on Friday posted a notice on its Web site with its response to the so-called wildcard service, which launched Sept. 15. The wildcard service sends people to a VeriSign page with search results, including links to paid advertisements. Until now, Web surfers would have gotten an error message. VeriSign runs the registry for the .com and .net domains--among the most widely used top-level domains on the Web. The wildcard service is for .com and .net domains.
ICANN said it is investigating complaints about the wildcard service and asked VeriSign to pull it, pending further study.
"Recognizing the concerns about the wildcard service, ICANN has called upon VeriSign to voluntarily suspend the service until the various reviews now under way are completed," the agency wrote in a notice posted on its Web site.
On Saturday, the Internet Architecture Board also weighed in on the controversy with an analysis of domain name system (DNS) wildcards. The group recommended that "DNS wildcards should not be used in a zone unless the zone operator has a clear understanding of the risks, and that they should not be used without the informed consent of those entities which have been delegated below the zone."
Criticism has been growing over Mountain View, Calif.-based VeriSign's surprise decision to take control of unassigned .com and .net domain names, which has confused antispam utilities and drawn angry denunciations of the company's business practices from frustrated network administrators.
Verisign could not immediately be reached late Sunday.
Last week, the company stood by its new service.
"There is a lot of fiction about the actual technology and the service," VeriSign spokesman Brian O'Shaughnessy had said. "What we are doing is trying to determine fact and fiction, and we're doing so by reaching out to the technology community and helping them to understand exactly what is fact and fiction."
VeriSign is not alone in seeking to replace DNS errors. Microsoft has also directed people who use its Internet Explorer Web browser to a Microsoft search page when they mistype certain domain names in the browser's URL bar.
ICANN said it is investigating complaints about the wildcard service and asked VeriSign to pull it, pending further study.
"Recognizing the concerns about the wildcard service, ICANN has called upon VeriSign to voluntarily suspend the service until the various reviews now under way are completed," the agency wrote in a notice posted on its Web site.
On Saturday, the Internet Architecture Board also weighed in on the controversy with an analysis of domain name system (DNS) wildcards. The group recommended that "DNS wildcards should not be used in a zone unless the zone operator has a clear understanding of the risks, and that they should not be used without the informed consent of those entities which have been delegated below the zone."
Criticism has been growing over Mountain View, Calif.-based VeriSign's surprise decision to take control of unassigned .com and .net domain names, which has confused antispam utilities and drawn angry denunciations of the company's business practices from frustrated network administrators.
Verisign could not immediately be reached late Sunday.
Last week, the company stood by its new service.
"There is a lot of fiction about the actual technology and the service," VeriSign spokesman Brian O'Shaughnessy had said. "What we are doing is trying to determine fact and fiction, and we're doing so by reaching out to the technology community and helping them to understand exactly what is fact and fiction."
VeriSign is not alone in seeking to replace DNS errors. Microsoft has also directed people who use its Internet Explorer Web browser to a Microsoft search page when they mistype certain domain names in the browser's URL bar.
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Cisco beats Q4 earnings expectations
Cisco surpassed analyst expectations again when it posted fourth-quarter earnings of $2.3 billion on sales of $9.4 billion.
The results exceeded analyst estimates of $9.29 billion in revenue and earnings of $2.24 billion.
Earnings do not include expenses and other items. Including those items, Cisco recorded a profit of $1.9 billion for the fourth quarter ended July 28.
Revenue was up 18% over last year’s fourth quarter, and earnings for the same period were up 21.2%.For the 2007 fiscal year, Cisco recorded sales of $34.9 billion and earnings – excluding expenses and other items – of $8.4 billion. Revenue was up 22.6% over fiscal 2006 and earnings increased 21.6% over the last fiscal year.
Scientific-Atlanta, acquired in February 2006, contributed $2.8 billion to net sales for fiscal 2007, compared with $989 million for fiscal 2006. Fiscal 2007 results again exceeded analyst expectations, which were $34.78 billion in revenue and earnings of $8.34 billion.
At $1.9 billion, routing revenue was up 14% in the quarter from the fourth quarter of FY 2006. Orders for high-end routers grew in excess of 30% from the fourth quarter of 2006.
Switching revenue was $3.3 billion, up 18%.
Revenue from Advanced Technologies -- unified communications, storage, security, and others -- was $2.2 billion, up 24% from last year's fourth quarter, and services revenue, $1.5 billion, was up 19%. U.S. business improved in the quarter after two soft quarters in the enterprise market in Q2 and Q3. In U.S. business overall, average growth was in the upper teens, "the best we've seen in a number of quarters," said Cisco CEO John Chambers. In enterprise specifically -- excluding federal government business -- orders grew 12% in Q4, vs. mid single digit order growth in the second and third quarters.
Federal orders grew 40% over the fourth quarter of FY 2006, and U.S. service provider orders grew 30% over the same period.Cisco's new video-based TelePresence virtual meeting system is relied upon by the company to drive enterprise demand. Orders for that system in Q4 grew 400% over the third quarter of fiscal year, and Cisco has deployed 110 systems since its introduction last fall.
On a global basis, enterprise orders -- including public sector -- grew in the mid-teens. Service provider orders grew in the low 20% range. Q4 was the sixth consecutive quarter of record revenue and net income, excluding expenses, for Cisco. The company has grown earnings an average of 22% on a yearly basis for the past 16 quarters, CFO Dennis Powell said during a conference call on the fourth quarter results.
With that momentum, Cisco is raising its long-term guidance to grow 12% to 17% annually, from previous targets of 10% to 15%. For the first quarter of fiscal 2008, Cisco expects revenue of $9.45 billion to $9.55 billion, a hike of 13% to 16% from the first quarter of 2007.
The results exceeded analyst estimates of $9.29 billion in revenue and earnings of $2.24 billion.
Earnings do not include expenses and other items. Including those items, Cisco recorded a profit of $1.9 billion for the fourth quarter ended July 28.
Revenue was up 18% over last year’s fourth quarter, and earnings for the same period were up 21.2%.For the 2007 fiscal year, Cisco recorded sales of $34.9 billion and earnings – excluding expenses and other items – of $8.4 billion. Revenue was up 22.6% over fiscal 2006 and earnings increased 21.6% over the last fiscal year.
Scientific-Atlanta, acquired in February 2006, contributed $2.8 billion to net sales for fiscal 2007, compared with $989 million for fiscal 2006. Fiscal 2007 results again exceeded analyst expectations, which were $34.78 billion in revenue and earnings of $8.34 billion.
At $1.9 billion, routing revenue was up 14% in the quarter from the fourth quarter of FY 2006. Orders for high-end routers grew in excess of 30% from the fourth quarter of 2006.
Switching revenue was $3.3 billion, up 18%.
Revenue from Advanced Technologies -- unified communications, storage, security, and others -- was $2.2 billion, up 24% from last year's fourth quarter, and services revenue, $1.5 billion, was up 19%. U.S. business improved in the quarter after two soft quarters in the enterprise market in Q2 and Q3. In U.S. business overall, average growth was in the upper teens, "the best we've seen in a number of quarters," said Cisco CEO John Chambers. In enterprise specifically -- excluding federal government business -- orders grew 12% in Q4, vs. mid single digit order growth in the second and third quarters.
Federal orders grew 40% over the fourth quarter of FY 2006, and U.S. service provider orders grew 30% over the same period.Cisco's new video-based TelePresence virtual meeting system is relied upon by the company to drive enterprise demand. Orders for that system in Q4 grew 400% over the third quarter of fiscal year, and Cisco has deployed 110 systems since its introduction last fall.
On a global basis, enterprise orders -- including public sector -- grew in the mid-teens. Service provider orders grew in the low 20% range. Q4 was the sixth consecutive quarter of record revenue and net income, excluding expenses, for Cisco. The company has grown earnings an average of 22% on a yearly basis for the past 16 quarters, CFO Dennis Powell said during a conference call on the fourth quarter results.
With that momentum, Cisco is raising its long-term guidance to grow 12% to 17% annually, from previous targets of 10% to 15%. For the first quarter of fiscal 2008, Cisco expects revenue of $9.45 billion to $9.55 billion, a hike of 13% to 16% from the first quarter of 2007.
Has Cisco founder Bosack again unveiled the Next Big Thing?
Twenty-three years ago, the husband and wife team of Stanford University computer support staffers Len Bosack and Sandy Lerner founded the most powerful and valuable company in networking: Cisco Systems. This week, Bosack rolls out what he believes is another breakthrough product for enterprise networks that may make as much of an impact as Cisco routers. He shared some thoughts on his new product, the DXM optical transport system, and 16-year-old company, XKL LLC, with Network World Managing Editor Jim Duffy.
The IT Manager's Toolbox: Microsoft Virtual Server & Virtual PC
A critical component of the IT manager’s toolkit should be virtualization software.
In our mostly heterogeneous Windows™ server and client environments, we use Microsoft’s Virtual PC and Virtual Server products.
In fact, virtual machines (VMs) containing server images and default client desktops for each client are part of the tools out technical consultants take with them on site visits. For service and technical support, the ability to roll back a server, or client for that matter, to an earlier, more stable image is a blessing.
In x64, R2 SP1 form, Virtual Server is capable of running 512 virtual machines and supporting up to 256 GB of memory when operated on Windows Server 2003 x64. Yes, not a typo! 256 GB of memory! 512 virtual machines! Talk about taking advantage of the performance allowed by 64-bit addressing!
Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 can be downloaded from here, and Microsoft Virtual PC download is here. Microsoft has also made available a library of ready-to-use virtual hard disks, or VHDs, containing time-bombed OS installs. These VHDs cover almost the entire gamut of Microsoft offerings.
In our mostly heterogeneous Windows™ server and client environments, we use Microsoft’s Virtual PC and Virtual Server products.
In fact, virtual machines (VMs) containing server images and default client desktops for each client are part of the tools out technical consultants take with them on site visits. For service and technical support, the ability to roll back a server, or client for that matter, to an earlier, more stable image is a blessing.
In x64, R2 SP1 form, Virtual Server is capable of running 512 virtual machines and supporting up to 256 GB of memory when operated on Windows Server 2003 x64. Yes, not a typo! 256 GB of memory! 512 virtual machines! Talk about taking advantage of the performance allowed by 64-bit addressing!
Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 can be downloaded from here, and Microsoft Virtual PC download is here. Microsoft has also made available a library of ready-to-use virtual hard disks, or VHDs, containing time-bombed OS installs. These VHDs cover almost the entire gamut of Microsoft offerings.
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