Adobe Partners With Yahoo for Ad-Supported PDFs

Looking for love

Adobe is exploring the placement of ads in PDF files, enlisting Yahoo to help figure out how best to orchestrate it, reports the BBC.

The company hopes working with Yahoo will help determine whether there is a market. As part of the test program, Yahoo will place contextual text ads in a sidebar off to the side of the document.

Revenue will be split between Adobe, Yahoo and the publisher.Right now a limited number of publishers are taking part in the test. Advertisers are not notified when their ads appear in PDFs.

Microsoft Eyes Yahoo purchase

May 4, 2007 -- Stung by the loss of Internet advertising firm DoubleClick to Google last month, Microsoft has intensified its pursuit of a deal with Yahoo!, asking the company to re-enter formal negotiations, The Post has learned.

While Microsoft and Yahoo! have held informal deal talks over the years, sources say the latest approach signals an urgency on Microsoft's part that has up until now been lacking.

The new approach follows an offer Microsoft made to acquire Yahoo! a few months ago, sources said. But Yahoo! spurned the advances of the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant. Wall Street sources put a roughly $50 billion price tag on Yahoo!.

"They're getting tired of being left at the altar," said one banking source who has recently had talks with Microsoft. "They now seem more willing to extend themselves via a transaction to get into the game."

Part of the reason for that is because Google keeps trumping Microsoft on the deal front, beating out the company on not just DoubleClick, but also for a renewed search advertising pact with AOL in 2005 that Microsoft lusted after.

Moreover, with Google developing Internet-based software that directly competes with Microsoft Office, sources said Microsoft has no choice but to go on the offensive.

"The minute you hear Microsoft start arguing against something on antitrust grounds, you know they are desperate and need to do something big," said one source.

Sources said Microsoft is working with Goldman Sachs.

News of Microsoft's latest approach comes as Yahoo!'s new search advertising platform Project Panama is just getting off the ground.

The long-awaited platform posted disappointing first-quarter results, but sources said that was more a function of difficult comparisons to the year-earlier period and less a sign that the system wasn't working. That said, another quarter or two of similar results and investors might begin renewing calls for a sale or for CEO Terry Semel to step down.

As it stands now, a deal between Microsoft and Yahoo! would up the combined companies' share of the all-important search advertising market to 27 percent against Google's 65 percent. It would also narrow the gap in overall online ads with Google to just 13 percent.

More importantly, a deal would create what one source described as "the dominant force on the Internet" in terms of eyeballs. That's an important consideration as more and more content flows online - as the equations goes, eyeballs equal advertising.

Microsoft and Yahoo! also feature complimentary offerings on the content side, with MSN drawing an older audience with its news focus. By contrast, Yahoo! attracts a younger demographic with its entertainment coverage.

Aside from cost savings, a deal would also create opportunities to use Yahoo! content on Microsoft devices, such as making music exclusively provided to Yahoo! Music available on Microsoft's Xbox game console and Zune music player.

A spokeswoman for Yahoo! declined comment. Microsoft declined comment. peter.lauria@nypost.com

YHOO traded down big in after-hours

YHOO traded down big in after-hours; overall Q and outlook light. Details from the call…
• YHOO saying Panama having early success in the US…."After we introduced the new ranking algorithm on February 5, we saw expected improvements in the run rate year over year of click-through rates versus how they were tracking in January"
• They say they are well positioned to launch Panama in int'l markets. YHOO has launched Panama to select group of Japanese clients yesterday. Remaining int'l markets will be rolled out in the months ahead, starting w/Korea and Europe later this Q.
• They are expanding EBAY relationship - "we're announcing that we've expanded our relationship with eBay, with the introduction of the Yahoo! PayPal checkout program"
• Advertisement activity among lenders and aggregators across our network remains solid. Says they have limited exposure to subprime issues.
• They end w/$3.1B cash; they say their investments (Yahoo Japan, Ali Baba, etc) worth $3.6B in aggregate, or >$5.75/shr


YHOO - A. Quadrani and B. Peck comment after earnings; results within guidance but missed St's raised expectations; Q2 outlook disappoints and so does the unchanged full year outlook; cutting our ests; cutting our PT from $35 to $34; reit Outperform. We are reducing our 2Q07 revenues and GAAP EPS to $1.253B and $0.11 from $1.295B and $0.13, resp. Our full year revenues and GAAP EPS reduces to $5.256B and $0.50 from $5.345B and $0.54. Our estimate changes reflect our view that branded advertising will continue to face pricing pressure, offset by improved search monetization. YoY growth for all the revenues segments (O&O, Branded Ad, Search and total Marketing Services) decelerated in 1Q07 compared to 4Q06.