Christopher Saunders

Overture and FindWhat.com, two rivals in the paid search engine listings business, topped industry expectations in a further illustration of the performance-based sector’s relative health, compared to the rest of the online advertising industry. As expected, Pasadena, Calif.-based Overture posted fourth-quarter revenue of $101.2 million, up 40 percent from the previous quarter. Overall, the firm […]

Warring telecom factions are again turning to advertising to get their message across to consumers and lawmakers, in advance of the U.S. House of Representatives’ scheduled vote on the controversial Tauzin-Dingell broadband deregulation bill. The bill, on which the House is slated to vote in two weeks, would revise the Telecom Act of 1996 to […]

Personal digital assistant manufacturer Palm, Inc. turned exclusively to the Web to push its newest product, relying on online direct marketing and targeted media buys to drive the launch of its i705. The move marks a change for the Santa Clara, Calif.-based technology company whose earlier campaigns are probably best remembered for their stylish TV, […]

Mobile marketing technology firm Avesair is buying up rival ad network and server WindWire, in a move that consolidates two competitors in the fledgling wireless advertising space. Terms of the purchase were not disclosed, although WindWire’s lead investor, Intersouth Partners, will provide an additional investment in the merged company and will assume a seat on […]

Women-focused Web publisher iVillage is snapping up Promotions.com in a bid to improve its marketing services. The purchase will have New York-based iVillage issuing about $3.5 million in stock (roughly 1.5 million shares, at press time) for all the shares of Promotions.com, also based in New York. Calculated at about $0.87 per share of Promotions.com, […]

A new upgrade by site metrics firm WebSideStory aims to address both marketers’ growing demand for quantifiable Web investments, and the industry’s trend toward all-in-one solutions. Specifically, the company’s newest version of its HitBox Enterprise service offers a way for marketer to segment visitors to their Web sites, using cookies. For instance, visitors to a […]

E-mail marketing firm Digital Impact looks to stake a claim in the hotly contested hosted software space, taking the wraps off its ASP solution. The San Mateo, Calif.-based firm, which provides online direct marketing services for companies, said it would be extending its in-house software, Impact, to an ASP version. As a result, clients would […]

Pay-for-placement search engine Overture said it’s on-track to post its second-straight profitable quarter. Citing “inquiries” that prompted it to release the news six days before it was set to announce its results to the markets, Pasadena, Calif.-based Overture said it would “substantially exceed” its earlier guidance for the quarter ended Dec. 31. It did not […]

The Super Bowl might have the single largest audience of any U.S. television event, but it’s the 17-day Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City that a host of Internet companies are betting on with their marketing budgets. One reason is the fact that General Electric’s NBC division, which won broadcasting rights to the Games, could […]

Interactive television middleware player OpenTV is taking its rivalry with Liberate Technologies to the courts, charging it with patent infringement. Mountain View, Calif.-based OpenTV filed a suit in federal court in California that alleged that Liberate’s system for delivering interactive TV content to set-top boxes infringed on U.S. Patent Nos. 5,819,034 and No. 5,563,648. Both […]

“Surround sessions,” an ad delivery format that’s recently come into vogue, is not only innovative, but it delivers major boosts in branding — according to findings from the New York Times’ online unit. In the “surround session” model, site visitors receive ads from a single advertiser for the entire duration of their stay. That includes […]

New York-based ad network and technology firm 24/7 Real Media on Wednesday filed a patent infringement suit against rival ValueClick, reprising the series of quarrels among the online ad servers and networks. The suit alleges that Westlake Village, Calif.-based ValueClick’s ad delivery system infringes on the patent that 24/7 Real Media holds for its system. […]