Yahoo getting AOL?

Last 24 September 2008, Ad Age.com run a story by Abbey Klaassen about Yahoo new Ad Platform. A few questions popped out for Jerry Yang, specially related to Yahoo's interest in AOL from Time Warner.

Below are excerpts from the Ad Age story.

Does Yahoo need AOL?
The San Francisco Chronicle and San Jose Mercury News are using the platform, which is built on the bones of the Right Media Exchange. Apt is a networked version of an ad-serving system and lets both Yahoo and the papers sell ads across it. The system will be rolled out to the rest of Yahoo's newspaper consortium members through the year and to advertisers and agencies in 2009. (The consortium lets Yahoo sell across newspaper sites and allows newspapers to sell Yahoo's inventory.) It's a big undertaking -- essentially going against category leader DoubleClick as well as the WPP Group-owned 24/7 Right Media and Microsoft's Atlas ad-serving platform.

So does Yahoo need such an acquisition as AOL to make its ad platform work?

Answered Mr. Yang: "My view is that we are in an extraordinary time, where if you look at Yahoo and look at our consumer reach, it's at an all-time high. We feel our consumers are engaged in Yahoo in a way that's at an all-time high. We are busy developing industry-type platforms, not just those that work for Yahoo but those that work for everybody. I think our road ahead on our own is very, very compelling."

OK, so Yahoo doesn't need to make any acquisitions?

"Well my point," he said, "would be that, to the extent there are opportunities to enhance our leadership and strategy, we have to look at them. That's my job and the board's job. But I will say these rumors with AOL have been out there for a long time so there's nothing changed on that perspective."

Working with EON and one of the partner of choice of Yahoo here in the Philippines, I hope to one day meet the Yahoo CEO. At least Andrei met co-founder David Filo in Sunnyvale, California a couple of weeks ago, when developers got together