by Jason Wilk on December 1, 2008
- ValueClick, the holding company that controls major advertising/shopping properties Mediaplex, Comission Junction and PriceRunner, is on the fritz. Big time.
- Display advertising is one of the ValueClick’s biggest revenue drivers, which at the moment is the least economical ways for advertisers to spend their money due to low CTR, high bounce rates and often immeasurable demographic metrics.
- All of Internet advertising is taking a hit though. Google saw a major drop in their stock when they pulled back their earnings forecasts this week, while ValueClick has seen their stock drop to $5.42 from a high of $29.97 this year. Ouch.
- This isn’t all ValueClick is worried about. The Google Affiliate Network is quickly becoming the largest CPA advertising network in the world over Commission Junction, a profitable asset for ValueClick. Google is already gaining speed and as soon as they integrate analytics for publishers, it will be over for ValueClick affiliate marketing.
- Lastly, their PriceRunner comparison shopping search still has momentum in Europe, but back home they are a second thought, even more so now with people’s wallets closing shut from the financial crisis.
- Their market cap is down 60% this year to $474M. Watch out for even further falling prices. We called this drop off in October, since then their stock price has fell significantly.
- In related news, Sam Paisley, their former head of M&A has already left for SpotRunner.
Is it possible ValueClick will be the first major tech stock to bite the dust?
A tiny exclusive
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by Jason Wilk on November 3, 2008
- Co-founder and CEO of SpotRunner, Nick Grouf, has announced that the company has laid off around 30% of their staff, or 115 people.
- Majority of the layoffs come from the local search advertising arm as the economy has scared away their local merchants who SpotRunner targets to sell television time to.
- As the company moves towards signing on bigger clients who are less prone to a downturn, they had no choice but to lay down the axe.
- SpotRunner will not be hitting the deadpool anytime soon though. They just raised a fresh $51M in may and they are bringing in revenue.
TC
by Jason Wilk on October 31, 2008
- Beverly Hills based, SpotRunner, who has raised $111M to bring ‘web to TV’ advertising for local companies, is expected to lay off 75 employees come Monday.
- SpotRunner’s lofty goal for the year with the capital was to lead it to an IPO. They convinced their current CFO Sam Paisley this year to jump ship from ValueClick to manage the process. Looking like this will not happen now
- I ran into two SpotRunner employees today out and about in Santa Monica and they said overall feeling inside the company is very somber.
- Maybe they should have used Calacanis’ model of fire them quick and all at once. Don’t let it leak and drag out, which leads to a decrease in performance. We’ll keep you posted.
TC
by Jason Wilk on October 9, 2008
- ValueClick, the holding company that controls major advertising/shopping properties Mediaplex, Comission Junction and PriceRunner, has had their stock turn from ‘Buy’ to ‘Neutral’ on news of Bank Of America downgrading all online display advertising companies.
- In a recession, online display advertising is one of the least economical ways for advertisers to spend their money due to low CTR, high bounce rates and often immeasurable demographic metrics.
- All of Internet advertising is taking a hit though. Google saw a major drop in their stock when they pulled back their earnings forecasts this week, while ValueClick has seen their stock drop to $7.49 from a high of $29.97 this year. Ouch.
- This isn’t all ValueClick is worried about. The Google Affiliate Network is about to surge as the largest CPA advertising network in the world over Commission Junction, a profitable asset for ValueClick. Google is already gaining speed and as soon as they integrate analytics for publishers, it will be over for ValueClick affiliate marketing.
- Lastly, their PriceRunner comparison shopping search still has momentum in Europe, but back home they are a second thought, even more so now with people’s wallets closing shut from the financial crisis.
- Their market cap is currently valued at $670M.
- We got word that their recent head of M&A, Sam Paisley, just jumped ship to SpotRunner.
Is it possible ValueClick will be the first major tech stock to bite the dust?
A tiny exclusive
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