Comments on: Yahoo Makes Tiny Acquisition: BuzzTracker

By: Roundup O’Linkage: Mobile Marketing + M&A + iPhone Rebate/Unlock + Union Strike in Vegas & Google Kills PowerPoint :: David LaPlante

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 23:20:50 +0000

[...] Yahoo Makes Tiny Acquisition: BuzzTracker There are rumors that Yahoo may have acquired news site BuzzTracker, a tiny news aggregation site, for $5 million. Alan Warms, CEO of parent company Participate Media, will join Yahoo as Vice President and General Manager of Yahoo News (tags: buzz marketing trend watching coolhunting buzzmetrics buzzmonitor buzzmarketing) [...]

By: Hits Singapore » Blog Archive » Yahoo News Beta Tests New Design, Knows If You Get Bored Easily

Sun, 09 Nov 2008 09:18:35 +0000

[...] on Yahoo and elsewhere on the web (this feature incorporates the Buzztracker technology that Yahoo acquired last [...]

By: buzztracker | Trendsactions

buzztracker | Trendsactions — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 08:27:55 +0000

[...] 2008, blogs, contentAcquisition date: 09/14/2008 Acquisition info: link Price: $2-$5M Profile: Our goal has been to launch a news site that leverages the power of the [...]

By: TechCrunch Japanese アーカイブ » Yahoo News、ベータ版で新デザインを試行。飽きやすさを考慮

TechCrunch Japanese アーカイブ » Yahoo News、ベータ版で新デザインを試行。飽きやすさを考慮 — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 01:30:43 +0000

[...] Yahooのニュース、テクノロジー、教育担当VP兼GMのAlan Warmsによると、サイトを微調整して、編集担当者がビデオや写真を取り込む際の柔軟性が増すようにしたという。また、読者がコンテンツをアクセスしやすくなるように調整したとも語った。各記事の末尾にはYahoo内外の関連記事、人気記事へのリンクが数多く付加される（この機能には、昨年Yahooが買収したBuzztrackerの技術が応用されている。 [...]

By: Yahoo News Beta Tests New Design, Knows If You Get Bored Quickly

Yahoo News Beta Tests New Design, Knows If You Get Bored Quickly — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 00:53:46 +0000

[...] on Yahoo and elsewhere on the web (this feature incorporates the Buzztracker technology that Yahoo acquired last [...]

By: Strong Windows Client-side Coder / Co-founder (san jose north) | computer Jobs in sfbay

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 14:09:46 +0000

[...] http://www.tech...on-buzztracker/ [...]

By: Paul Montgomery

Paul Montgomery — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 21:39:18 +0000

Thanks Pimento. Well, given that there was zero dilution from angel or VC according to Fred Wilson, that must make Al himself a multimillionaire on this deal alone. Good for him.

One of the major takeaways from this deal has to be the power of networking. A chance meet at a conf leads to a $5 million exit? Damn, I need to get on the next plane to the Valley to press the flesh.

By: Nick

Nick — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 21:00:44 +0000

I agree that techmeme is the best, megite is keeping up in the niche topics.

By: Pimento

Pimento — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 20:55:28 +0000

Paul, Participate Media IS Al Warms. There’s no huge staff to talk about. Having worked for Mr. Warms at his previous venture, I’m kinda befuddled that Yahoo would hire him as GM of News. It doesn’t seem like a cultural fit. Maybe that says more about Yahoo these days than it does about Warms.

By: Paul Montgomery

Paul Montgomery — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 20:22:18 +0000

I still haven’t seen on the twenty or so blog stories on this exactly how many employees Participate Media has. Anyone? Bueller?

By: nasty

nasty — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 19:03:26 +0000

Im assuming they liked both the tech and the people. Maybe they hope to get something similar working for delicious that works out better than their popular tag?

By: Michael Arrington

Michael Arrington — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 18:40:16 +0000

Scott, ok, but is he now going to leave spammy comments linking back to Yahoo news all over the web? He sounds like amateur hour to me.

By: Thom

Thom — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 18:01:58 +0000

According to Compete.com (yes, I know, not the most accurate of numbers, but whatever), BuzzTracker gets 33,600 users/mo, meaning Yahoo paid close to $150 per user (!). Granted, this acquisition is not about getting traffic, but there are not many other metrics to use here since BuzzTracker was pre-revenue.

Compete says TechMeme gets 140,000 users/mo. If you apply the $150 per user, this would value TechMeme at around $21M. Throw in another $9M for TechMeme being a category leader with sexier technology and you get to about $30M. Sounds like a good ballpark valuation for TechMeme, no?

By: JoaoAzevedo

JoaoAzevedo — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 17:13:18 +0000

Does anyone knows the traffic metrics for Buzztracker? We all know that Techmeme has bout 25 000 daily visitors. I do agree with most comments; Techmeme and far better service adn I suppose a far better Technology. But more than 50million for Techmeme is too much…

By: whoopie

whoopie — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 16:27:41 +0000

yahoo news is worth the investment. its been an extremely durable traffic conduit for eleven years, and that isn’t going to change. they have a good formula that is enduring in the face of web2 crap – make the news simple, fast, and constantly updated.

By: Scott Rafer

Scott Rafer — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 15:42:19 +0000

Meet Alan Warms. You’ll understand why they bought BuzzTracker. The energy level at Y! News just doubled.

By: stencil

stencil — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 15:12:59 +0000

#6, agree, Techmeme is really best of breed. I think yahoo really should have gone after them. But I doubt they’d get ‘em for less that $50mil, maybe even more.

By: Learn PHP

Learn PHP — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 14:48:29 +0000

So, basically you have to have inside contacts to be picked by bug guns. sad.

By: sputnick

sputnick — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 13:26:52 +0000

Note to self: Refrain from leaving spammy comments on blog posts to get more traffic.

By: Tokyotronic

Tokyotronic — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 13:20:56 +0000

Paul, you have a point there. Nice payday for the founders, apparently. Good for them.

I don’t see anything particularly sexy about that site either though.

By: threz

threz — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 09:26:39 +0000

Seems obvious to me that the purchase is to get the people (person?) not the website over to Yahoo. Much like most of google’s acquisitions.

Otherwise $5 mil is *way* too much for basically another RSS aggregator.

By: Beas

Beas — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 09:07:35 +0000

Maybe Im wrong, but I always thought Techmeme was by far the best tech out there when it came to news/buzz trackers. I dont understand this purchase unless its just the way chosen to hire their CEO.
Could somebody throw an estimated valuation for Techmeme given Techcrunch readers experience, the amount paid for Buzz tracker and the market momentum? Thanks in advance.

By: Amit

Amit — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 09:04:07 +0000

Its so unfortunate that smaller companies & groups are coming up with innovative and intelligent ideas & the big guns are doing nothing but sitting idle and buying such startups without investing their brains.

By: Paul Montgomery

Paul Montgomery — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 08:56:36 +0000

$5 million sign-on fee for how many employees? The about page just lists an MBA/BSEE and a politics major. If it is just those two, it’s not the worst cash-out I could think of for a News 2.0 startup. It will be interesting to see whether that is at the high or low end of expectations in the future.

By: Steve Spalding

Steve Spalding — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 08:40:15 +0000

There is a small possibility that something in the Buzz Tracker tech caught their eye, and they just could not help picking it up for the price. Unfortunately, I am hard pressed to see what that something is.

Though, a social aggregater white label would be interesting. I wonder if Jerry is listening. Ah well, back to reading the Prince stream…