Yahoo, which is positioning itself as the “premier digital media company” rather than a search engine leader these days, has picked up another online advertising platform.
Set to be folded into the Ad Marketplaces group, Yahoo acquired 5to1, which is an online advertising alliance that enables major media publishers to fill unsold inventory with premium ads. The deal is expected to go through by the end of the second quarter. The release doesn’t reveal any monetary figures, but Dow Jones (via The Wall Street Journal) reports that Yahoo is paying $28 million in cash.
5to1 has connections to over 20 “premium publishers,” so hopefully this helps push up revenue growth for the next quarter - especially after those snags over Microsoft’s adCenter platform that were reported in April during the company’s first quarter earnings call.
Yahoo has been shuffling around with its holdings lately. It recently bought up IntoNow, a company that provides a check-in app for social TV programs, which definitely fits in with Yahoo’s latest moves. Instead of focusing on search, Yahoo is moving more and more towards developing multimedia for entertainment with the production of more Internet-connected TV apps and even original content.
Additionally, the Sunnyvale-based company dropped Delicious, which seemed to be just a weak link in Yahoo’s evolving strategy.
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