No, Nick, this isn't a thread designed to bitch about the pop-up ads you've been forced to use.
Just a little bit of info I stumbled across in Business Week when reading up on Double click:
"In fact, most analysts expect online advertising to rebound, boosting all of DoubleClick's businesses. Merrill Lynch expects online ad sales to grow to $7.3 billion this year, and bounce up to $9.1 billion in 2003.
Already, the five-year-old company is clobbering the rest of the industry it helped create. With 5,000 customers, DoubleClick is more than twice as big as its closest rival, 24/7 Real Media. Meanwhile, others are dropping by the wayside: MatchLogic Inc., once DoubleClick's primary competition, went out of business in mid-September. And rival Netcentives Inc. (NCNQE ) went belly-up on Oct. 9.
*snip*
At the same time, DoubleClick's ad-sales business is shrinking. The problem is that smaller Web sites are going out of business, and large Web sites increasingly handle their own ad sales, so there's a shrinking role for an intermediary between Web sites and advertisers. The company still handles ad sales for 715 Web sites, including Nasdaq.com. But the business is struggling. Fourth-quarter revenues for the unit were $27 million, down from $60 million a year ago, and more than 90% of the company's operating losses come from this business. DoubleClick says it's open to the possibility of exiting ad sales altogether if a buyer can be found--something analysts say is unlikely.
DOWN BEFORE UP. Even if DoubleClick doesn't shed the ad-sales business, a fundamental shift is under way. In 2001, 50% of the company's revenues came from technology products and services, 32% came from ad sales, and 18% from market research. In 2002, the company expects technology to grow to 62% and ad sales to shrink to 16%, with the balance coming from market research. To boost its technology, the company has brought on a new chief technologist. Formerly CIO at Ameritrade (AMTD ), Mok Choe's mission is to develop new services for analyzing customer behavior.
It will take several quarters for the business remix to show results. Revenues will decline--from $406 million in 2001 to $369 million this year--before starting to grow again in 2003, say analysts. DoubleClick's stock is trading at about $11 per share, up from a low of $4.40 in October, because analysts are forecasting improved financial performance. Goldman, Sachs & Co. forecasts a $5.36 million profit this year.
Expect DoubleClick's buying spree to go on until most of the valuable technology assets of the remaining online advertising companies are under its roof. Then, if the online ad market turns around, it will be ready for a second growth spurt. If this all works out as planned, the company's biggest problem might turn out to be an enviable one: dealing with the loneliness of being by itself on top of a still-emerging industry."
For the whole article:
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine...7/b3770615.htm
Just a little bit of info I stumbled across in Business Week when reading up on Double click:
"In fact, most analysts expect online advertising to rebound, boosting all of DoubleClick's businesses. Merrill Lynch expects online ad sales to grow to $7.3 billion this year, and bounce up to $9.1 billion in 2003.
Already, the five-year-old company is clobbering the rest of the industry it helped create. With 5,000 customers, DoubleClick is more than twice as big as its closest rival, 24/7 Real Media. Meanwhile, others are dropping by the wayside: MatchLogic Inc., once DoubleClick's primary competition, went out of business in mid-September. And rival Netcentives Inc. (NCNQE ) went belly-up on Oct. 9.
*snip*
At the same time, DoubleClick's ad-sales business is shrinking. The problem is that smaller Web sites are going out of business, and large Web sites increasingly handle their own ad sales, so there's a shrinking role for an intermediary between Web sites and advertisers. The company still handles ad sales for 715 Web sites, including Nasdaq.com. But the business is struggling. Fourth-quarter revenues for the unit were $27 million, down from $60 million a year ago, and more than 90% of the company's operating losses come from this business. DoubleClick says it's open to the possibility of exiting ad sales altogether if a buyer can be found--something analysts say is unlikely.
DOWN BEFORE UP. Even if DoubleClick doesn't shed the ad-sales business, a fundamental shift is under way. In 2001, 50% of the company's revenues came from technology products and services, 32% came from ad sales, and 18% from market research. In 2002, the company expects technology to grow to 62% and ad sales to shrink to 16%, with the balance coming from market research. To boost its technology, the company has brought on a new chief technologist. Formerly CIO at Ameritrade (AMTD ), Mok Choe's mission is to develop new services for analyzing customer behavior.
It will take several quarters for the business remix to show results. Revenues will decline--from $406 million in 2001 to $369 million this year--before starting to grow again in 2003, say analysts. DoubleClick's stock is trading at about $11 per share, up from a low of $4.40 in October, because analysts are forecasting improved financial performance. Goldman, Sachs & Co. forecasts a $5.36 million profit this year.
Expect DoubleClick's buying spree to go on until most of the valuable technology assets of the remaining online advertising companies are under its roof. Then, if the online ad market turns around, it will be ready for a second growth spurt. If this all works out as planned, the company's biggest problem might turn out to be an enviable one: dealing with the loneliness of being by itself on top of a still-emerging industry."
For the whole article:
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine...7/b3770615.htm
