Poor first-quarter results and speculation over his future had Yahoo CEO Terry Semel firing shots at rival Google over its pending acquisition of DoubleClick. He said the search giant could see an advertiser exodus from DoubleClick as publishers become weary of partnering with a company it competes with for eyeballs and advertising dollars. He added that DoubleClick's publisher-agnostic approach was one of its most compelling attributes that would be lost after becoming part of Google. However, the Yahoo chief doesn't think antitrust regulators should stop the takeover. Earlier this week, Microsoft Corp. and AT&T, Inc. said a Google-DoubleClick …

Industry watchers have suggested that the latest round of bad news for the Internet telephony firm Vonage Holdings Corp. could only end one of two ways: bankruptcy or a takeover. The New York Times' Deal Book believes the latter is more likely, and insiders expect Sprint-Nextel to be a potential suitor. Sprint, which is suing the VoIP provider for patent infringement, is understood to be interested in taking over the ailing company; that's one possibility for resolving the lawsuit. Other observers have detected hints in recent comments made by Vonage executives. According to Deal Book, Vonage's chief legal officer, …

Besides adding DoubleClick to its online ad repertoire, Google has also struck ad delivery deals with EchoStar and Clear Channel, two major holders of offline inventory. Google CEO Eric Schmidt has also been on damage control. Indeed, it's become standard procedure for Google to publicly reassure its partner/competitors the company has no intention of encroaching on their territory following a significant new partnership or acquisition. "Google is a new phenomena. It does not replace radio and television," Schmidt said yesterday at a National Association of Broadcasters conference. As ever, he stressed the benefits of befriending Google for …

Web radio broadcasters were dealt a harsh blow on Monday as a federal copyright panel upheld its decision to raise the royalty fees Web radio companies have to pay record labels. The decision comes in the wake of an appeal filed by National Public Radio and signed by hundreds of small commercial Webcasters, which complain that significantly raised fees would put them out of business. The three judges from the U.S. Copyright Board said the consortium failed to make a "sufficient showing of new evidence or clear error or manifest injustice that would warrant rehearing." The new rules say …

If Google succeeds in buying the graphical ad-server DoubleClick, pending government approval, the search giant will no longer just be the search giant. The company's aggressive foray into traditional media, like print, radio and now, TV, proves that. Indeed, it would be hard for CEO Eric Schmidt to deny that Google's aim is to dominate global advertising. Google would corner a big chunk of online advertising with the addition of DoubleClick. Big G already accounts for two-thirds of search revenue; with DoubleClick, it would gain a hefty share of display advertising -- and a lot of new business. Microsoft …

You could argue that GoogTube doesn't really have to do this. But Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who's everywhere in the press this week on Google damage control, says the company is close to implementing a filtering service that would prevent copyrighted content from being uploaded to video sharing site YouTube. Schmidt pointedly made these comments at the National Associated of Broadcasters conference, during an interview with John Seigenthaler, a former "NBC Nightly News" reporter. Called Claim Your Content, the new service automatically identifies copyrighted material media companies can choose to remove. "We are very close to turning …

Microsoft and Adobe are on a collision course, as the companies, which have been partners for a long time, roll out software handling multimedia functions like video and animation. Today, this is an area dominated by Adobe's Flash, but Microsoft is now throwing its hat into the ring with a new software called Silverlight, designed to make the building of advanced programs easier. Adobe, meanwhile, is rolling out a new, free product of its own, Adobe Media Player, which is similar to Windows Media Player or Real Networks' RealPlayer. Adobe is also readying another desktop technology called Apollo, which …

Internet outsider Henry Blodget says Google's proposed $3.1 billion purchase of DoubleClick from private-equity firm Hellman & Friedman is a bargain--unlike, say, the expensive, complicated YouTube buy. "What's it worth to fix your display-advertising problem, corner the market for the 'advertising operating system,' and deliver a hammer-blow to an already prostrate Seattle-based competitor? At "only a few quarters of free cash flow," $3.1 billion is a small price to pay. Google is already the undisputed king of text-based search and contextual advertising through its AdWords and AdSense programs. With the addition of DoubleClick, Google would now control the …

Having agreed to a $3.1 billion price tag (about $1 billion more than most estimates in the press) Google is setting out to buy ad-serving giant DoubleClick--subject to regulatory approval in both the U.S. and E.U. Now, Microsoft and the rest (because henceforth that's how everyone in the Web business should be addressed) are understandably angry, according to various reports. Microsoft, in particular, could have used an acquisition like DoubleClick. Perpetually trying to build things on its own, the software giant continues to come up short when it comes to MSN and Web-based applications. In the wake of Google's …

Imagine a virtual "metaverse" where people are represented by avatars that can interact with one another and build anything from businesses to buildings. Oh wait, it's already a reality. But the greater question is, do massively multiplayer online games like Second Life and There represent the future of the Web browser? Will avatars represent our doings online as we conduct research, buy products or even go to work? It's certainly a possibility, writes BW but you can definitely count on the future being "slicker, more realistic and more interactive and social than anything we experience today through the …