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Broadband & Mobile Featured Article
April 16, 2008
AOL Acquires Content Service Provider Sphere Source
By Nathesh TMCnet Contributing Editor
AOL (News - Alert), in a continued effort to shed its image as an ISP and evolve even further to a Web 2.0 company, has acquired content service provider Sphere Source, according to the companies.
Sphere is a blog content company that was founded in 2005. It provides a Web widget that calls up relevant content from a variety of sources across the Internet, primarily blogs.
The Sphere link is found on over 50,000 sites, including those of media organizations CNN, Reuters (News - Alert), Newsweek, and CBS. At the time of its arrival, Sphere faced stiff competition from a crowded market. Howeveer, it soon fended of its competitors by adapting its business model to equip big media providers with a simple technology for "contextual search,” such as displaying relevant links and content based on the subject matter of the page being viewed.
For some time now, AOL has been pursuing an aggressive policy in acquiring enterprises to bolster its position in areas critical to its emergence as a leading advertising-supported Web media and marketing company. Building on its number one position in third-party display with Advertising.com, AOL has spent nearly $1 billion on online advertising acquisitions, including market leaders like ADTECH, buy.at, Lightningcast, Quigo, TACODA and Third Screen Media (News - Alert) to create Platform-A. Platform-A is the top display ad serving network focused on helping marketers build brands that perform online.
In Web content, AOL’s revitalized network of sites has experienced five months of consecutive page view growth and key categories like Music, Television, Moviefone, TMZ, Money & Finance, News, Living and Body are all in the top four in their respective categories.
As part of its international growth plans, AOL has launched 17 international Web sites over the last year and has plans to expand to 30 countries outside the U.S. by the end of 2008.
AOL bought Bebo last month for $850 Million. AOL is even persuing the potential acquisition of Yahoo! which is currently avoiding a hostile takeover bid from Microsoft (News - Alert).
"AOL is doing what great, sustainable business do every so often — they're reinventing themselves," wrote Sphere CEO Tony Conrad on the company's blog today. "They've seen steady growth as a result of the extensive programming and product upgrades they've made in the past year."
"We founded Sphere with a mission to make contextually relevant connections between all forms of content (mainstream media articles, archived articles, videos, blogs, photos, ads) that enable the reader to go deep on topics of interest," wrote Conrad.
Natesh is a TMCnet Contributing Editor.
Don’t forget to check out TMCnet’s White Paper Library, which provides a selection of in-depth information on relevant topics affecting the IP
Communications industry. The library offers white papers, case studies and other documents which are free to registered users. Today’s featured white paper is, Best Practices in Agent Retention brought to you by Enkata.
Sphere is a blog content company that was founded in 2005. It provides a Web widget that calls up relevant content from a variety of sources across the Internet, primarily blogs.
The Sphere link is found on over 50,000 sites, including those of media organizations CNN, Reuters (News - Alert), Newsweek, and CBS. At the time of its arrival, Sphere faced stiff competition from a crowded market. Howeveer, it soon fended of its competitors by adapting its business model to equip big media providers with a simple technology for "contextual search,” such as displaying relevant links and content based on the subject matter of the page being viewed.
For some time now, AOL has been pursuing an aggressive policy in acquiring enterprises to bolster its position in areas critical to its emergence as a leading advertising-supported Web media and marketing company. Building on its number one position in third-party display with Advertising.com, AOL has spent nearly $1 billion on online advertising acquisitions, including market leaders like ADTECH, buy.at, Lightningcast, Quigo, TACODA and Third Screen Media (News - Alert) to create Platform-A. Platform-A is the top display ad serving network focused on helping marketers build brands that perform online.
In Web content, AOL’s revitalized network of sites has experienced five months of consecutive page view growth and key categories like Music, Television, Moviefone, TMZ, Money & Finance, News, Living and Body are all in the top four in their respective categories.
As part of its international growth plans, AOL has launched 17 international Web sites over the last year and has plans to expand to 30 countries outside the U.S. by the end of 2008.
AOL bought Bebo last month for $850 Million. AOL is even persuing the potential acquisition of Yahoo! which is currently avoiding a hostile takeover bid from Microsoft (News - Alert).
"AOL is doing what great, sustainable business do every so often — they're reinventing themselves," wrote Sphere CEO Tony Conrad on the company's blog today. "They've seen steady growth as a result of the extensive programming and product upgrades they've made in the past year."
"We founded Sphere with a mission to make contextually relevant connections between all forms of content (mainstream media articles, archived articles, videos, blogs, photos, ads) that enable the reader to go deep on topics of interest," wrote Conrad.
Natesh is a TMCnet Contributing Editor.
Don’t forget to check out TMCnet’s White Paper Library, which provides a selection of in-depth information on relevant topics affecting the IP
Communications industry. The library offers white papers, case studies and other documents which are free to registered users. Today’s featured white paper is, Best Practices in Agent Retention brought to you by Enkata.
