RSSAOL Acquires Social Search Site Yedda
By the Betanews Staff | Published November 12, 2007, 12:52 PM
AOL said Monday that it had acquired Israeli social search site Yedda, a company that focuses on linking questions to the best possible users to get answers and start discussions on topics. The technology will be integrated through AOL's properties, and in select programming areas on AOL.com. Following the acquisition, Yedda will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of AOL. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
"Incorporating Yedda's unique technology into AOL enables us to bring together our traditional search resources and an entire community of people to help users quickly find answers to questions," AOL COO Ron Grant said. The Yedda buy is the second for AOL in a week, after buying contextual ad firm Quigo for approximately $340 million to strengthen its ad division. After turning its ISP service free, AOL has turned to ads and the Internet as a way to make up for lost revenues.
Not quite happy with this part: "After turning its ISP service free..."
Gives off the wrong connotation. Dialup access isn't free, so i'd maybe change it to something like the formerly for-pay broadband portal...
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So, AO(H)ELL Acquires a Search site because no one uses theirs!
Like buying a dog to play with the ugly kid because no one else will play with him / her.
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Yedda is not THAT bad... then again, if AOL paid kazillions for it, it is a dog.
But more importantly, I wouldn't spend so much money on so many acquisitions in a vain catchup effort-- esp. in light of all their cash flow & earnings shortcomings. I would just partner up with Google.
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catching up, that's all AOH will ever do is play catchup.
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