By Eric Auchard
Google Inc. said on Friday it is acquiring Feedburner Inc., bolstering
the Internet advertising leader's capacity to distribute both media
and advertising to blogs via Web syndication technology.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, a Google spokesman said. Various
blog reports in recent weeks had put the price of a potential deal at
about $100 million, but those reports could not be confirmed.
Feedburner is a pioneer in the market for delivering the latest
updated information to other Web sites using technology known as
Really Simple Syndication (RSS). Customers include the Wall Street
Journal, BBC and Amazon.com Inc..
"We're constantly looking for ways to identify and offer new tools for
content creators and Website publishers," Susan Wojcicki, Google's
vice present of product management, said in a blog post, adding that
the purchase helps it provide new tools for its hundreds of thousands
of advertising customers.
Feedburner also offers analytics to help Web publishers understand who
reads their sites, as well as embedded advertising allowing Web site
publishers to get paid based on the audiences they attract via RSS
feeds.
The deal, while small in financial terms, is the latest in a series of
rapid moves to consolidate the fast-growing online advertising market.
The deal would expand Google's existing blog advertising service,
known as AdSense for feeds, which delivers targeted advertising tied
to Web page content.
Two weeks ago, Google rival Microsoft Corp. announced its largest-ever
acquisition, a $6 billion deal to buy aQuantive Inc., the largest
independent online ad company. In April, Google agreed to acquire an
aQuantive competitor, DoubleClick, for $3.1 billion.
Feedburner, based in Chicago, counts more than 430,000 Web site
publishers as users of RSS. A total of 736,000 RSS feeds, including
roughly 110,000 audio or video feeds, are delivered to readers as
publishers update their Web sites, according to Feedburner.
Feedburner was funded by venture capital firms Mobius Venture Capital,
Portage Venture Partners, Sutter Hill Ventures, Draper Fisher
Jurvetson and Union Square Ventures.
Copyright 2007 Reuters Limited.
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Weix Auchard, Reuters (reuters@telecom-digest.org)