Yahoo, still in CEO hunt, to buy Interclick for $270 million
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Yahoo Inc. hasn’t yet decided on a new chief executive and it hasn’t yet decided what to do with itself, but the company did announce the decision to pay $270 million to take over Interclick Inc.
So why would Yahoo want to buy Interclick, a New York online advertising firm that helps advertisers find websites matching their target market and resells ad display space on websites? The Sunnyvale, Calif., company said in a statement Tuesday that the move will beef up its online advertising business, which has seen declines in recent years but still remains one of the tech industry’s largest.
The purchase comes amid Yahoo’s ongoing search for a new permanent CEO, after firing Carol Bartz from the post in September, and a strategic review that could result in selling the company. Yahoo Chief Financial Officer Timothy Morse has filled in as interim CEO since September.
‘With Interclick, Yahoo! will acquire unique data targeting capabilities, optimization technologies and new premium supply, as well as a team experienced in selling audiences across disparate sources of pooled supply,’ Yahoo and Interclick said in a statement.
‘This investment underscores our focus on enhancing the performance of both our guaranteed and non-guaranteed display business across Yahoo and our partner sites and, combined with Yahoo!’s reach and advertising leadership, will deliver a powerful solution for marketers.’
Yahoo said it expects the deal to close in early 2012. On Tuesday, Yahoo board member David Kenny, who recently left his post as president of Akamai Technologies, a company that provides cloud services for businesses, told AdAge that he wasn’t looking to be Yahoo’s next CEO. Kenny remains at Akamai as a senior adviser.
‘The timing is coincidence,’ Kenny told AdAge. ‘People should not draw conclusions about where I’m going next, the consumer internet is a big place.’
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-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles
Photo: A Yahoo sign at the company’s Sunnyvale, Calif., headquarters. Credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images