In This Update:
• MySpace and Bebo Join Google’s OpenSocial Platform
• Viacom Profit Rises 80% on Cable Ads, ‘Transformers’
• Alibaba IPO May Lead the Way for China Tech Firms
• FTC Reviewing Google-DoubleClick “Expeditiously”
• MDC Takes Control of Crispin, Porter + Bogusky
• Specific Media will Use $100mm to Fund Acquisitions
• Report: Heavy Social Networkers Fuel e-Commerce
• Rumor: AOL Close to Buying Quigo
• Warner Music Withholds Content From Nokia
• Does HD Online Matter? AOL, CBS Say No
• ComScore Raising $255 million in Secondary Offering
• ScanScout Trademarks Brand Protector for Online Video

MySpace and Bebo Join Google’s OpenSocial Platform
REUTERS
MySpace and Bebo are joining Google’s OpenSocial application sharing platform, which aims to develop common standards for social networks to allow third parties to build applications that can work on various platforms. The move is seen as a direct challenge to Facebook’s high popularity in the social networking market and, in the case of MySpace, it was announced as a special partnership between the firms. Both Bebo and MySpace were absent from the original list of OpenSocial participants, which included Ning, Friendster, Hi5, LinkedIn and Google’s Orkut. This could bring an audience of more than 200mm users to OpenSocial’s platform.
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Viacom Profit Rises 80% on Cable Ads, ‘Transformers’
BLOOMBERG
Viacom Inc., owner of MTV and the Paramount film studio, said third-quarter profit rose 80 percent, fueled by cable advertising, the movie “Transformers” and the sale of its Famous Music publishing business. Net income increased to $641.6 million, or 96 cents a share, from $356.8 million, or 50 cents, a year earlier, New York-based Viacom said today in a statement. Excluding a gain, profit of 65 cents beat the 59-cent average of 15 analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Sales advanced 24 percent to $3.27 billion, beating the average estimate of $2.97 billion.
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Alibaba IPO May Lead the Way for China Tech Firms
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Alibaba.com, the online business-to-business commerce unit of the Alibaba Group of China, is raising US$1.5 billion in the IPO. It has drawn 453 billion Hong Kong dollars (US$58.44 billion) in individual subscriptions for shares and US$150 billion in applications from institutional investors. One big buyer is Yahoo, which owns 39% of Alibaba Group and is getting US$100 million in shares of its dot-com unit. Another is a group of “cornerstone” investors who have pledged to take US$145 million in Alibaba.com shares. Allocation of the shares will be Monday and trading on Hong Kong’s stock exchange starts Tuesday.
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FTC Reviewing Google-DoubleClick “Expeditiously”
REUTERS
U.S. antitrust authorities are reviewing Google Inc’s purchase of advertising company DoubleClick as quickly as possible, Federal Trade Commissioner Jon Leibowitz said on Thursday. The agency’s antitrust review of the deal began in May. But Leibowitz warned that privacy advocates could be disappointed. U.S. privacy and technology groups have raised questions about the deal because Google stores information on the Internet-surfing habits of users and uses it to sell ads. DoubleClick connects ad agencies, marketers and Web site publishers.
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MDC Takes Control of Crispin, Porter + Bogusky
MEDIAPOST
Canada’s MDC Partners said Thursday it acquired an additional 28% equity stake in Crispin Porter + Bogusky, bringing both its voting and economic ownership to 77% of the firm. This increase is up from their prior stake of 49%. The transaction represents an accelerated exercise of the MDC’s existing call options. In connection with the acquisition, all of the four partners of CP+B agreed to extend the terms of their partnership arrangements with CPB.
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Specific Media will Use $100mm to Fund Acquisitions
ONLINE MEDIA DAILY
As one of the few remaining independent ad networks, Specific Media would seem to be more the prey than the hunter these days. But with a fresh infusion of $100 million in venture capital funding, the company plans to go on a buying spree of its own. In announcing the big investment from private equity firm Francisco Partners, Specific Media said the financing was earmarked for acquisitions that build on the company’s platform for placing and targeting online ads.
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Report: Heavy Social Networkers Fuel e-Commerce
REUTERS
ComScore released the results of a study using its Segment Metrix tool, which showed that heavy U.S. visitors to social networking sites are significantly more likely than average to visit leisure-oriented retail site categories, such as music, luxury goods, consumer electronics and apparel. Heavy social networking visitors are defined as the top 20 percent of visitors based on time spent on social networking sites. More than 95 percent of heavy social networkers visited retail sites in August, compared to 80 percent of the total U.S. Internet audience. These heavy social networkers exhibited a particularly high tendency to visit the more leisure-oriented retail categories, including those featuring entertainment (music, tickets, books and movies), fashion (apparel, jewelry/luxury goods/accessories), and retail technology (consumer electronics, computer software and hardware).
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Rumor: AOL Close to Buying Quigo
ALL THINGS DIGITAL
Contextual ad-targeting network Quigo might be bought by AOL for $300 million. Quigo provides contextual ad-targeting for many media Websites, including ABCNews.com, CNNMoney.com, Forbes.com, and USAToday.com. This would certainly be in keeping with AOL’s strategy to build out its Platform-A advertising network, even as it takes steps to allow consumers to opt out of such targeting.
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Warner Music Withholds Content From Nokia
WALL STREET JOURNAL
In the latest spat over copyright protection in the music industry, Warner Music Group Corp. has withheld its content from Nokia Corp.’s new music Web site over concerns about illegal downloads. Warner has decided not to sell its music through the Nokia Music Store Web site, launched yesterday, in part because another Nokia service, a file-sharing Web site called Mosh, on which consumers swap their own videos and other content, is being used to distribute copyrighted material, according to people familiar with the matter. With an extensive catalog that covers high-profile artists such as Madonna and Neil Young, Warner is the world’s third-largest recorded-music company, by revenue, after Vivendi SA’s Universal Music Group and Sony BMG Music Entertainment, a joint venture of Sony Corp. and Bertelsmann AG.
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Does HD Online Matter? AOL, CBS Say No
NEWTEEVEE
As cable companies and satellite service providers duke it out to augment HD programing for your TV, companies like AOL and CBS are backing out of or shying away from delivering HD viewing experiences online. Such a retreat raises the bigger question: Do audiences even care about HD online? AOL (TWX) is phasing out its HD-like “Hi-Q” service because of low consumer adoption. Fred McIntyre, sr. VP of AOL Video, said the number of Hi-Q users was “very small, so small that we haven’t tracked it.” Launched in November of 2005, AOL’s Hi-Q won accolades from industry analysts for providing a DVD viewing experience online. “We were pleased with the nice things people said about it, but there are things consumers care about more: finding stuff, clicking on video and it playing, browser independence,” said McIntyre. Quincy Smith, president of CBS Interactive (CBS), echoed that sentiment in a separate interview with NewTeeVee. “We are finding, generally speaking, people don’t care as much about the video quality. Right now, it damn well better work quick and fast,” said Smith.
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ComScore Raising $255 million in Secondary Offering
PE HUB
Comscore Inc. (Nasdaq: SCOR), a Reston, Va.-based provider of online consumer behavior analysis, has filed for a secondary public offering of 6.13 million common shares. The company’s stock closed trading Tuesday at $36.52 per share, which would value the deal at just over $255 million. Selling shareholders will include: Institutional Venture Partners (835,431 shares offering), JPMorgan Partners (919,731), Lehman Brothers (731,548), Adams Street Partners (714,486), Topspin Partners (250,000), Flatiron Partners (246,669) and vSpring (348,717).
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ScanScout Trademarks Brand Protector for Online Video
ONLINE MEDIA DAILY
Boston-based ScanScout has been granted initial Trademark protections for Brand Protector, a proprietary technology that scans online video content to determine if it is an appropriate match for an advertiser’s brand. Brand Protector is part of ScanScout’s overall contextual video ad strategy. It analyzes video content using speech and visual recognition and the collection of metadata, then allows advertisers to de-select specific kinds of content and keywords so that their ads don’t run in offending videos.
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Tags: ABC, AOL, Boston, Brand, CBS, Cisco, Doubleclick, Facebook, File-sharing, Financing, Friendster, Google, IPO, ISP, MTV, Music, MySpace, Nokia, ScanScout, Social Networking, Sony, Universal Music Group, Venture Capital, Video, Vivendi, Warner Music, Yahoo