Sales Mergers and Transfers in Affiliate Marketing
It seems to be the season for big price sales for Affiliate Marketing companies, websites and affiliate networks.
First we hear about the management buyout of DGM / Deal Group Media, the affiliate marketing affiliate network. GetMe In - the concert / event ticket sales site (who have an affiliate program with DGM) were bought by Ticketmaster. The acquisition of HolidayWatchdog by Tripadvisor and AOL / Advertising.com obtaining Buy.at just yesterday.
I am starting to think that 2008 might be an interesting/scary with regards to even more buyouts of both affiliate sites and affiliate network sites.
There are a number of rumors going round at the moment as to who is getting in bed with who, who is looking to float / be bought out by another giant in the industry.
Even Microsoft has been looking at borrowing money to buy out Yahoo - BBC News Story
We will just have to wait and see what happens, but are we looking at the online bubble bursting 2.0?
I honestly don’t think so, but I must say that there are a numer of bigger companies may bite off more than they can chew and vastly decrease their usefullness and productivity of their acquisitions.
I still feel that for the affiliate that 2008 should be a year of innovation, not just more feed sites, comparison sites et al. But development of useful applications. I would like to sit here this time next year and say that 2008 saw the death of cashback sites and a move into more innovation.
Time will tell.
This is me just rambling on with my thoughts, I should get back to work now
