Yahoo! buys Indian ad firm

Yes, there's still money to spend

By Cade Metz in San Francisco • Get more from this author

Posted in Applications, 18th July 2007 17:28 GMT

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Yahoo!'s first quarter financial results may have been a tad disappointing, but that hasn't stopped Jerry Yang and the gang from acquiring a hefty stake in Indian internet advertising company Tyroo Media. The move comes less than a week after Yahoo! finalized its purchase of U.S.-based ad firm RightMedia, part of an ongoing battle with Google and Microsoft over online ad dollars.

Yahoo! has grabbed a 35 to 50 per cent stake in the Guragaon-based Tyroo, which runs a small business-centric ad network spanning roughly 1,200 sites, IDG News Service reports. With stock holders already up-in-arms over the company's financials, Yahoo! won't say how much it paid.

Interestingly enough, advertisers can run both graphical and text-based ads on the Tyroo network even if they don't have a web site - still a bit of luxury for subcontinent small businesses. Ads can drive consumers back to advertisers via email or SMS.

Yahoo! and Tyroo say they will remain separate businesses, but the companies have decided to link their ad platforms, so that advertisers can have easy access to both. Yahoo! launched its search-based ad operation in India late last year, and the acquisition of Tyroo lays the groundwork for Yahoo!'s upcoming Indian roll outs of its new search-based advertising platform, Panama, and RightMedia's graphical ad technologies.®

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