Techcrunch and Valleywag report that Yahoo! has agreed to acquire MyBlogLog for an estimated $10 million.
That takes the number of Yahoo acquisitions we’ve heard of in the last 24 hours to 3 - Loren talked about Yahoo acquiring Bix earlier, while Katie Fehrenbacher from GigaOM also reports that Yahoo! has confirmed its acquisition of Swedish mobile company Kenet Works. The deal was concluded a few months ago and is reported to be at least $21 million (according to Swedish newspaper Dagens Industri).
Where does this lead Yahoo? While Google has established a clear lead in search engine market share, Yahoo still holds its own where social media is concerned and their traditional focus has always been on community building tools.
I think people have it wrong. The reason Yahoo picks up all the cool social media startups is NOT that Yahoo ‘gets’ social media better than Google (they might, but that’s not the reason they’re buying these companies) - it’s because they’ve effectively lost the battle in search, and are working hard on beefing up in the one area where they might stand a chance - social media.
Coming back to MyBlogLog, it looks like a very smart piece of business by Yahoo. I’m sure plenty of people are going to come out and point at the hammering Yahoo’s received in the stock market, at the lack of a lucrative business model in MBL, etc etc. But at the end of the day, MyBlogLog has all the features Yahoo’s gunning for in the social media wars - strong community base, a geeky coolness, plus a kickass product.
I remember when I first came across MyBlogLog - Aaron Wall was trialing it on his blog and I mailed him asking about this ‘cool javascript mouseover thing’ he had on his site. Doesn’t seem too long ago, but here we are today and MyBlogLog’s fetching $10 mil. Good business for Scott Rafer, and good business for Yahoo too methinks.
MyBlogLog may stagnate, or it may keep booming. But what will be most important is how Yahoo leverages the community, and dealing with communities is Yahoo’s bread and butter.
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8 responses so far ↓
Loren Baker on Nov 17, 2006 at 9:49 pm
Ahmed, I could totally see future integration of MyBlogLog into the Yahoo Publisher Network as an alternative stats system for smaller publishers and bloggers.
Ideally, the existing YPN ads could track referrals, comments and RSS aggregator views for bloggers; giving more value to YPN for bloggers and perhaps growing the adoption of their contextual ad network.
Muzammil on Nov 18, 2006 at 9:50 am
I’d like see to Yahoo! buyout Last.fm and intergrate it with Yahoo! Music that would make a lotta sense.
Yahoo! please acquire Last.FM!
Scott Rafer on Nov 18, 2006 at 11:09 am
If we’re so cool, where’s the Search Engine Journal community? :)
Jonathan on Nov 18, 2006 at 11:46 am
This will be great for Yahoo! I hope that they will be larger than Google…I love Yahoo ;)
BizzyBizzy on Nov 18, 2006 at 12:06 pm
I think the reason behind the recent Yahoo acquisitions isn’t any more complex than, these sites/services are making money but the companies are too small to go public. The Yahoo stock has suffered, horribly over the past year, down nearly 40 percent. By adding revenue, Yahoo adds to their stocks bottom line valuation based on multiple * earnings.
So, for example, when Google purchased YouTube for 1.65 billion, the company added millions in new revenue to Google’s bottom line and their stock increased in value by nearly $25 Billion. (make sense now)
With the rate at which the Google Management is selling their shares, they made their money back within the first couple weeks after the acquisition.
Ahmed Bilal on Nov 18, 2006 at 1:49 pm
If we’re so cool, where’s the Search Engine Journal community? :)
Don’t look at me, I just started here :P
Loren - good point.
loren on Nov 18, 2006 at 2:48 pm
scott, will be checking it out soon.
Loren Baker, Editor on Nov 19, 2006 at 8:15 am
Dave, and let’s not forget the brains and talent Yahoo is acquiring via this deal.
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