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NBCU and private equity firms BAIN CAPITAL and BLACKSTONE GROUP have bid $3.5 billion for the WEATHER CHANNEL. The bid, placed a week after the deadline to submit an offer, could be challenged by TIME WARNER, who is reportedly set to bid on the Weather Channel this week. LANDMARK COMMUNICATIONS, who owns Weather Channel, is expected to make a decision regarding the bids next week.
DELL recorded first-quarter profits of $784 million, up 4% from $756 million last year. The PC manufacturer is trying to break from a three-year down slide in which the company lost its market share to HEWLETT-PACKARD. To combat sliding sales in the US, Dell has laid off a significant amount of employees, opened themselves up to retail sales and is focusing on developing their foreign market, moves which have cut costs while increasing profitability.
GOOGLE’s paid clicks rose more than 20% during the month of April. While Google’s clicks rose, both MICROSOFT and YAHOO took a hit on their portion of the market. The report is just another indicator of Google’s dominance in the search business.
YAHOO CEO Jerry Yang confirmed reports that MICROSOFT is no longer interested in a total acquisition of the search company. While Yang admitted that the two companies are still in talks for some sort of search deal, a deal would most certainly fall far short of the proposed $45 billion takeover Microsoft offered in January. Yang reiterated that Yahoo is still open to a search ads deal with GOOGLE, however, analysts are still skeptical, citing regulatory issues.
Illinois Senator BARACK OBAMA spent roughly $3.5 million on online advertising between January and April. Approximately $2.8 million of the money the presidential hopeful spent online went directly to GOOGLE. The Obama camp has made great use of not only search ads, but also cost-per-action ads, which ensure advertisers are getting a return on their investment.