Yahoo buys Right Media
Published May 1st, 2007
Yahoo! Corp. (Nasdaq: YHOO) said early Monday that it was buying the remaining shares of online advertising exchange, Right Media, Inc., for $680 million. The search portal acquired a 20 percent stake in Right Media last October.
Right Media shareholders will receive both cash and stock while employee stock options are being assumed, Yahoo said.
Right Media is considered a top resource for publishers looking to monetize their ad inventory but it’s mostly used by low-traffic Websites who do not qualify for the larger premium online ad networks like Real Media or Tribal Fusion. Publishers who sign up for Right Media’s online ad exchange can offer a variety of ads and according to Right Media – that’s working for the now Yahoo-controlled online ad exchange.
Right Media said in a Feb. 28, 2007 press release that Exchange revenue has increased 81% over the past six months, with 566 billion ad impressions traded during the period.
Last summer, Right Media first launched the Exchange, just months before Yahoo bought a 20 percent stake. In that period, the company has also seen a 50% increase in headcount, a 49% increase in Exchange membership and an 84% increase in impressions served. Over one trillion impressions have been served on the Exchange since the company launched its auction platform in April of 2005.
Right Media founder Michael Walrath says that Yahoo’s outright purchase of control will not affect publishers, that Yahoo itself will continue to be another publisher in its Exchange.
“The benefits of this new relationship are clear,” said Walrath. “Yahoo! will add considerably more supply and demand to the Right Media Exchange.”
