Month: April 2007

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Google Buys DoubleClick: More Context, Less Banners?

One could only hope.

Everyone wondered if they’d ever really pull the trigger on this, or stick to their adsense guns while DoubleClick ambled along — and the day has come. $3.1B later, Google is now the king of all Internet advertising (although Yahoo! remains no slouch, most recently expanding it’s one-stop online news ad shop to include McClatchy).

Sergey Brin once hinted at DoubleClick being the “life preserver” as John Battelle mentions in The Search (and as Biz2.0 reminds today), but the metaphor was baswed on Adwords going under. While Adsense is doing fine, Google apparently seized on this opportunity to box out Microsoft and go large.

Rafat at PaidContent reports that the $3.1 billion cash offer is “much more than the rumored $2 billion that Microsoft was intending to pay.” It’s also 10 times DCLK (private since 2005)’s revenue.

How will this work out? Here’s Google’s Presser. Battelle’s analysis forthcoming at his blog.

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Oops, Rove Deleted All His E-mail

rove_070413.jpgTeam BushCo doesn’t even try to make stuff up anymore. The latest maneuver in the White House scandal involving e-mailing on unofficial servers to discuss official matters (which is illegal as I noted last week)

The White House said that up to 5 million e-mails may have been “lost” when the WH switched from using Lotus Notes to Microsoft Outlook in 2002 and 2003.

So ridiculous, it’s almost funny. But not. In fact, Rove was so addicted to deleting his e-mail he had to be singled out by White House staffers and barred from deleting e-mail on his RNC-hosted server. Froomkin has the best coverage of the affair.

Rep. Henry Waxman, who has led the investigation into the mysteriously missing White House e-mails, will discuss this and other investigations of the Bush Administration on Sunday in Hollywood. (10:00 a.m., Plummer Park, Art Room 2, 7377 Santa Monica Boulevard Hollywood 90046)

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Protesting Students Threatened with Suspensions

As if it’s not fascist enough that USC (where I’m at grad school) has an actual “free speech zone,” which would imply that such freedoms are not ensured anywhere else on campus, yesterday a small group protesting the schools use of sweatshop labor for their products was given 10 minutes to disperse, or else:

The sit-in began about 11 a.m. and ended after the students were handed personally addressed letters that said, “I want to inform you that you have been placed on interim suspension from USC. ” The letters outlined eight charges of misconduct.

The three-page letters, signed by Denzil J. Suite, assistant vice president for student affairs, said that “effective 5 p.m. on April 10, 2007, you may not return to the University of Southern California.” It also added that “if you reside in university-owned housing, you must vacate your residence by 9 a.m. on April 11.”

They even CALLED the protesters parents! Unbelievable. Shame, shame, SC. Go here to support the efforts of SCALE.