AOL’s Advertising.com division acquires buy.at

[5starAffiliatePrograms]

Exciting news! Can't wait to see how this all comes together.

Congrats to all!

[sgpratley]

I think you mean Steve and his boys and girls, if you look at the shareholders

Nope, they've already done their bit getting the deal signed, what it needs now is the team who can carry on delivering the affiliate message whilst wrapped up by a business with one of the worst records of mergers in corporate history. It's only just over a month ago that AOL killed off Netscape, bought for over $4 billion in its heyday.

Whatever issues have been raised around Buy.at I've always been a fan of theirs purely on the basis that they continue to beat the drum of affiliate marketing as an ROI-focussed sales channel and have never pushed the 'free branding' that other networks have sometimes tried to slide into the equation.

Chris Tradgett said it the first time I met him, rounding on representatives from a number of other networks during a Netimperative roundtable (ironically in Advertising.com's offices) and Kevin Cornils re-iterated it in a long piece in Revolution that came out during the A4U Expo.

At a time when we are likely heading for a recession and the brand advertising boys are frankly crapping themselves over the value they can deliver and trying to leap on the affiliate industry's successes, I hope that the companies that are getting their wallets out for affiliate marketing businesses remember why they are doing it and don't lapse back into 'we know best' as soon as the ink is dry.

A team with a bit of spark like Buy.at might stand a chance of teaching someone in AOL where value is really created online, god knows they need it right now.

[jimbanks]

Nice one Steve, always knew this was coming, just wasn't sure who the suitor was going to be.

Champagne on you next time!! (actually it was on you last time as well.......)

Jim Banks

[zaq]

Anyone know the price?

Well done guys nice sale £75 million etc

AOL acquires affiliate network to boost ad platform

[hpops]

Many congratulations to the team. Didn't see that coming.

[skywalker]

Well done all at Buy.at and Nice one guys (investors) - £3million investment to a £75million flip - schweet, dontcha just love online evaluations! As Steven P pointed out AOL are not great at M&A deals and tend to greedily gobble up aquisitions and general make a hash of things. I hope, like he does, that AOl does not screw it up. which would be a pity seeing all the hard work ppl at Buy.at offices have put in it since day one.

My thoughts (for what they are worth) have always been that Aff Networks will naturally merge from the economy of scales and added value that the sums are worth greater than the parts (no riddle/pun intended - not). I am surprised tbh that this hasn't happened earlier.

So who is next in the M&A rounds - will Linkshare buy TD, Zanox etc or all of them or perhaps Google will then buy Linkshare and knock out the competition - who knows where this train will end up...Monopolies and Mergers police is my guess but if nothing else 2008 is going to be a very interesting year for affi liate marketing in general!

2008 will be the year Affiliate marketing waves goodbye to childhood and becomes a teenager - food for thought - do people understand the implicaitons of all this?

[Firuze]

Congratulations to all of you. This is a proof of hard work, dedication and also potential of the UK Affiliate Marketing industry by its all players as affiliates, networks, agencies and merchants.


Well done Buy.at Team

Continued Success

[Mutual]

Steve, Kevin, Mal, Tyson, Chris T - many congratulations to you all, absolutely thrilled for the whole team. I remember Basingstoke in 2002 still. How times change for us all.

Oh, and thanks for raising that bar just a little bit more...

Well done.


Mark

[Top banana]

Well done guys.

Buy.at is a great company, i just hope that they dont change and adopt the poor level of customer service which both AOL and TD seem to offer.

[Azam.net]

Congratulations to all the buy.at team. There is so much talent and flair in that company it's frightening.

It's a network where you send an email and know it will always be responded to, and responded to professionally. It's a network where the Directors are still online at midnight and making sure the ship is being steered in the right direction.

I'm pleased you managed to strike up this deal and wish you all the best with your new parent company.

[Warrick Lambert]

Hi Guys,

I just wanted to follow-up on Steve’s post to thank you all for your support and kind words. It’s been a really exciting week at buy.at and none of it would have been possible without the support we’ve had from everyone on the network over the years and I’m looking forward to continuing that in the future. In an industry that’s built on relationships it’s really encouraging to see all the support from everyone and I hope this is something we can provide in return in the coming months.

I’m looking forward to the developments that are on the horizon for buy.at and all of our partners. The deal with Ad.com will allow us to invest further into the team at buy.at which will mean we can better serve all of our partners and work towards getting all the changes that we’ve been planning implemented quicker while still providing the same day to day service levels that have allowed us to get into this position in the first place.

I just want to reiterate Steve’s point about retaining the same team as I think that the continuity of the relationships we’ve established is really important as part of the process. Its definitely still business as usual at buy.at and none of us in London, Newcastle or New York are going anywhere, so as ever if anyone is in the area please let us know and we’d be more than happy to see you. Thanks again and if there’s anything I can help with please feel free to drop me a line.

Cheers

Warrick

[Qui Gon Jinn]

Did you write that yourself