Yahoo buys Maven for $160 million

by Nancy Gohring

February 12, 2008 —

Yahoo has acquired Maven
Networks for US$160 million in a deal that will help the search provider
boost its video advertising capabilities.

Media companies including Fox News, CBS Sports, Sony BMG use Maven's platform
to manage, distribute and earn advertising revenue from their online video content.
The platform includes an advertising insertion engine as well as inventory management
and reporting tools. Companies use it to post videos on their sites and insert
interactive ads into the videos.

Yahoo Tuesday said it plans to contribute its display advertising sales force
and technologies to Maven's platform to help publishers display more targeted
ads in videos. The deal means that advertisers can buy video, search and display
ads through Yahoo, which believes that video is a fast growing segment of the
online ad market.

Maven has become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Yahoo, which has established
a Cambridge, Massachusetts, office with the acquisition.

Yahoo makes the acquisition in the midst of an increasingly hostile attempt
by Microsoft to buy the search company. In response to Yahoo's rebuttal of its
buyout offer, Microsoft on Monday said that it thinks its offer was fair and
that it might take the offer directly to Yahoo shareholders.

IDG News Service