The performance marketing world will be buzzing this morning after the event that happened quietly over the US Labor Day holiday. Japan's Rakuten said it will buy LinkShare Corp. for US$425 million to move into overseas markets.
It's something that never seemed would happen, but in hindsight, selling out to a Japanese company makes perfect sense for this Linkshare who has such strong ties to the Japanese business world, and who has alienated so many potential US suitors. For a few years now, Linkshare has had the largest presence in Japan, especially after ValueClick sold off their Japanese media division.
It'll surely take a while for any change, but I find myself wondering what a Linkshare would be like without Steven and Heidi Messer, the brother and sister team whose personalities have so strongly shaped the company and its reputation. The press releases indicate that the pair will continue to manage the US operations of Linkshare, but as these things go, the founders of acquired companies tend more often than not to say "sayonara".
Also interesting is what affect this will have on the marketing industry as a whole. Some small affiliate-marketing-only companies exist, but the fish are getting bigger, eating up the smaller performance-marketing fish. Be Free, Performics, Commission Junction, and now Linkshare have all be acquired by larger, broader businesses. Linkshare has gone for the most money by far.
On stock message boards, ValueClick (VCLK) shareholders have been speculating (or hoping) for the ultimate big-fish buyout. This move surely sparks more discussion around the possiblity of Microsoft, Google, or Yahoo buying out ValueClick. At the very least, the Linkshare sale puts a new comparable value on two companies that VCLK has purchased for less than half of the pricetag combined.
RSS
The performance marketing world will be buzzing this morning after the event that happened quietly over the US Labor Day holiday. Japan's Rakuten said it will buy LinkShare Corp. for US$425 million to move into overseas markets.
It's something that never seemed would happen, but in hindsight, selling out to a Japanese company makes perfect sense for this Linkshare who has such strong ties to the Japanese business world, and who has alienated so many potential US suitors. For a few years now, Linkshare has had the largest presence in Japan, especially after ValueClick sold off their Japanese media division.
It'll surely take a while for any change, but I find myself wondering what a Linkshare would be like without Steven and Heidi Messer, the brother and sister team whose personalities have so strongly shaped the company and its reputation. The press releases indicate that the pair will continue to manage the US operations of Linkshare, but as these things go, the founders of acquired companies tend more often than not to say "sayonara".
Also interesting is what affect this will have on the marketing industry as a whole. Some small affiliate-marketing-only companies exist, but the fish are getting bigger, eating up the smaller performance-marketing fish. Be Free, Performics, Commission Junction, and now Linkshare have all be acquired by larger, broader businesses. Linkshare has gone for the most money by far.
On stock message boards, ValueClick (VCLK) shareholders have been speculating (or hoping) for the ultimate big-fish buyout. This move surely sparks more discussion around the possiblity of Microsoft, Google, or Yahoo buying out ValueClick. At the very least, the Linkshare sale puts a new comparable value on two companies that VCLK has purchased for less than half of the pricetag combined.
Related Stories China Post- Japan's Rakuten to buy U.S. Internet advertiser LinkShare Beth Kirsch, Revenews - What the Market will Pay for an Affiliate Marketing Provider: LinkShare, CJ, Performics, and BeFree Connie Berg, Revenews - Linkshare Being Acquired for $425 Million Wayne Porter, Revenews - LinkShare is Turning Japanese- I Really Think So