The right stuff for Yahoo


Google's (Nasdaq: GOOG) recent $3.1 billion deal for DoubleClick has certainly opened a Pandora's box for the online marketing space. Stocks like 24/7 Real Media (Nasdaq: TFSM) and aQuantive (Nasdaq: AQNT) have been juiced up and rumors are buzzing.

Now we have another data point to work with: Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO) is shelling out $680 million for Right Media, a privately-held company. In fact, back in October, Yahoo purchased a 20% stake in the company.
The rumor is that the October valuation was only about $200 million. I guess the Right Media team has been doing everything right.

And what do they do exactly? Basically, Right Media is a marketplace for display advertising. It's kind of like eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) meeting the online advertising space.

I had a chance to talk to Dave Morgan, who is the chairman and founder of online advertising firm, TACODA. He was also the founder of Real Media. According to him:

"Big deal. Sends a strong message that portals like Yahoo! need significant off-site reach through third party platforms to satisfy the demands of ad buyers for scale and are willing to pay for it. Also, the deal gives yahoo! a strong position in the low-end direct response display business that Right Media has been strong with. This should complement their higher end branded display sales on their own site."

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and the EDGAR-Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.
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Last updated: February 12, 2012: 04:07 PM

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