Microsoft, Yahoo, Google to pay $31.5 million for illegal gambling ads
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Internet companies say they stopped taking money for ads touting illegal gambling years ago but agree to pay to settle federal allegations.
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Online gambling firms faced their biggest-ever crisis on Monday after U.S. Congress passed legislation to end Internet gaming there, threatening jobs and wiping 3.5 billion pounds ($6.5 billion) off company values.
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The World Trade Organization slaps the United States with a token $25 million fine for its banning of online gambling, a move that could have unpleasant implications for Antigua and Barbuda, an offshore gambling haven.
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Yahoo Inc has struck a deal to buy BlueLithium, the fifth-largest U.S. online advertising network, for $300 million in cash, in the latest move to consolidate the behavioral ad targeting market.
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Microsoft, Yahoo and Google agreed to pay a combined $31.5 million to settle federal civil allegations that they had accepted ads for illegal gambling.
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Viacom Inc. will pay $1 million and The Walt Disney Co. $500,000 to settle charges they violated rules for airing commercials during children&#39;s programs, federal regulators said Thursday.
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Google Inc. has agreed to acquire in-game advertising company Adscape Media Inc. for $23 million, according to technology site Red Herring, which cited sources familiar with the matter in a report late on Thursday.
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Google could help keep Yahoo away from Microsoft if it took over selling search ads for Yahoo in return for a very large check. That money could help finance all sorts of possible deals.
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Google Inc. raised the specter of Microsoft Corp. using its proposed $42 billion acquisition of Yahoo Inc. to gain illegal control over the Internet, underscoring the online search leader's queasiness about its two biggest rivals teaming up.
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The U.S. Department of Justice is scheduled to respond this week to a lawsuit claiming restrictions on online gaming ads violate First Amendment protections of free speech.
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The three largest Internet companies have agreed to pay a combined $31.5 million to settle federal civil allegations they took ads for illegal gambling, the U.S. Attorney for eastern Missouri said Wednesday.
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Veritas Software agreed to pay $30 million to resolve civil fraud charges connected to an improper advertising deal it signed with AOL during the Internet boom's waning days.
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Online gambling firms faced their   biggest-ever crisis on Monday after U.S. Congress passed   legislation to end Internet gaming there, threatening jobs and   wiping 3.5 billion pounds ($6.5 billion) off company values.
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Evergreen Investment Management and its affiliates have agreed to pay $32.5 million to settle charges of improper market timing.
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Microsoft plans to intensify its pursuit of Yahoo this week when it authorizes a proxy fight to oust Yahoo&#39;s board, meaning the 19-day old acquisition attempt will soon turn a darker shade of ugly, according to The New York Times.The proxy fight will cost Microsoft between $20 million and $30 million, much less than having to significantly up its offer for Yahoo, The Times reported Tuesday morning, quoting anonymous sources.The aggressive move would be consistent with Microsoft&#39;s statements hinting that it&#39;s willing to acquire Yahoo via hostile means if necessary.&#160;Yahoo&#39;s board rejected unanimously Microsoft&#39;s offer, calling it too low.Yahoo declined to comment about The Times&#39; article. Microsoft didn&#39;t immediately reply to requests for comment.On Feb. 1, Microsoft offered to pay $31 per share for half of Yahoo&#39;s outstanding shares in cash -- about $22.3 billion -- and 0.9509 of a Microsoft share for the other half. Microsoft&#39;s half-cash/half-stock offer to Yahoo was valued at about $44.6 billion at the time it was made; Yahoo&#39;s share price was $19.18 at the time.However, the bid&#39;s value has dropped to about $41 billion as the price of Microsoft&#39;s stock has fallen from $32.60 at the time the offer was made. It was trading at $28.77 on Tuesday morning. At the same time, Yahoo&#39;s stock has surged, erasing the bid&#39;s original premium. It was trading at $29.32 on Tuesday morning.In the proxy fight, Microsoft would hire a proxy solicitor to urge Yahoo investors to kick out board directors, The Times reported, adding that all Yahoo directors are up for nomination this year.After investing heavily in recent years in its Internet business and failing to achieve its desired goals, Microsoft is now convinced that it must acquire Yahoo in order to compete against common rival Google, especially in search advertising, the largest online advertising market pie, and one that Google dominates.As of the end of 2007&#39;s third quarter, Google had almost 25 percent of the U.S. Internet advertising market, up from almost 21 percent in 2006&#39;s third quarter, according to IDC. Meanwhile, Yahoo&#39;s share during this period dropped to 11.3 percent from 12.3 percent, while Microsoft&#39;s declined to 5.2 percent from 5.8 percent, according to IDC.In search usage, Google held a commanding 62.4 percent of queries worldwide, followed by Yahoo in a very distant second place with 12.8 percent, according to comScore. Microsoft ranked fourth with 2.9 percent, after Baidu (5.2 percent).Unquestionably, Yahoo would be a major win for Microsoft in the display ad market. In November, Yahoo ranked first in the U.S. in display ad impressions with a 19 percent share, while Microsoft came in third with 6.7 percent, after News Corp.&#39;s Fox Interactive (16.3 percent), according to comScore. Google took seventh place with 1 percent.However, skeptics question whether acquiring Yahoo will yield the expected benefits, considering the complexity of integrating the two businesses, cultures and technology platforms and the fact that Yahoo has had severe internal problems that have stumped its most seasoned executives. In addition, some aren&#39;t sure that a unified Microsoft/Yahoo will have a better chance to compete against Google.Yahoo co-founder and CEO Jerry Yang, who is also on the board of directors, has been urgently looking for and considering alternatives to a Microsoft acquisition soon after Ballmer and company made their bid.Reports -- all attributed to anonymous sources in various media outlets -- have emerged in the past two weeks that Yang has held conversations with Google, AOL and News Corp., exploring various deals that would allow him to reject Microsoft&#39;s offer.The key is that the shareholder value created by a competing deal would have to at least match the value of Microsoft&#39;s deal. Otherwise, Yahoo would make itself liable to shareholder lawsuits that alleged the board had failed to perform its fiduciary duty.So far, as experts have analyzed the potential value to Yahoo of outsourcing its search advertising to Google, merging with AOL or selling a 20 percent stake to News Corp. in exchange for MySpace, the consensus has been that none of those scenarios comes close to matching Microsoft&#39;s offer.
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Former Republican presidential candidate Gary Bauer's campaign has agreed to pay a &#36;31,000 fine to settle a campaign finance case.
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A House panel voted Thursday to crack down on the &#36;12 billion Internet gambling industry by applying federal prohibitions to games like online poker, blackjack and roulette.