BU Now » Internet

Google/AdMob deal okayed

Dick Taffe — Fri, 21 May 2010 22:11:33 +0000

Despite concerns that Google could extend its Internet marketing dominance into the emerging field of wireless devices, federal regulators approved the company’s $750 million purchase of its mobile advertising rival AdMob. Law Professor Keith Hylton, an authority on antitrust law, said it looks like the right decision given rapid changes in the market such as rival Apple buying the third largest mobile ad network, Quattro Wireless. Besides, he said, Google doesn’t seemed worried about antitrust threats from the Obama administration.

“[Google] appears to have the administration working diligently on its side on the net neutrality issue, and that is probably worth a lot more than these relatively minor antitrust issues.”

Contact Keith Hylton, 617-353-8959, knhylton@bu.edu

Google & Yelp, maybe not

Dick Taffe — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 22:11:23 +0000

Talks have broken down after a flurry of stories saying Google was about to buy the online local search and business-review provider Yelp in order to expand search advertising opportunities. School of Management Professor N. Venkat Venkatraman, chairman of the Information Systems Department, says a Google acquisition of Yelp could benefit both.

“Yelp could play an important part to Google’s social media content and different from simply highlighting Twitter or Facebook results. For Yelp, it is about investment for growth and finding a good strategic fit with a company with traction.”

Contact N. Venkat Venkatraman, 617-353-7117, venkat@bu.edu

Apple/Google co-opetition

Dick Taffe — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 21:01:48 +0000

After years of staying out of each other’s way and thriving, Google and Apple now fight over the same start-up acquisitions and develop competing products. School of Management Professor N. Venkat Venkatraman, chair of the Information Systems Department, says it embodies the shift under way in how companies compete in the era of convergence shaped by information technologies.

“Managers who fail to see evolving competitive landscape under conditions of convergence will find themselves trapped into rigid business arrangements. This battle should serve as a wake-up call.”

Contact N. Venkat Venkatraman, 617-353-7117, venkat@bu.edu

Google blinks at publishers

Dick Taffe — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 18:20:11 +0000

Google has agreed, as a concession to publishers of paid content news, to let them limit the number of free articles accessed through the Internet search engine. Journalism Department Chairman Lou Ureneck calls it a positive development for the media indusry, and ultimately for consumers.

“The free traffic in articles that news organizations have put significant money into developing is unsustainable in the long term. This moves the Internet and media closer to a consumer-paid model.”

Contact Lou Ureneck, 617-353-4095, lureneck@bu.edu

Readers will have final say on newspapers

Dick Taffe — Thu, 14 May 2009 20:19:33 +0000

College of Communication Professor Lou Ureneck, the former Philadelphia Inquirer deputy editor who now chairs the Journalism Department, says the clear public demand for good journalism as measured by online readership could bode well for the troubled newspaper industry. “If the public’s demand is real,” he says in a Boston Globe op-ed, “the challenge is principally one of packaging and pricing news on the Internet.”

Contact Lou Ureneck, 617-353-4095, lureneck@bu.edu