ITGumbo: spicing IT up

Reports over the weekend have surfaced that AOL is close to signing a deal to purchase Israeli performance-based marketing company, Quigo. Should the deal go through, AOL is likely to pay around $300 million for the company, according to Ha'aretz. While Quigo has two main programs, FeedPoint, a search engine tool and AdSonar, a targeted ad technology that rivals Google's AdSense, AdSonar is really AOL's main interest in the company. Such a deal would help level the ad-networking field between AOL and it's rivals, MSN, Yahoo! and Google.

The only questions regarding this deal, is how smart would it really be for Quigo in the long term? A year ago, CNN Money published an article speculating about Quigo's potential to overtake Google and Yahoo! in the ad networking space because media companies with sites preferred to use technology that wasn't from a media competitor. If AOL buys Quigo, as an example, what will the difference between Quigo's AdSonar and Google's AdSense be?

Either way, Quigo and Time Warner (AOL's parent company) signed a three-year deal in May, and it is estimated that Quigo will bring in $100 million during that time period. The purchase will provide a nice return to Quigo investors such as, Highland Capital, Steamboat Ventures, IVP and Bob Davis, among others.

Below are two parts of a video interview with Quigo's CEO Michael Yavonditte back in May just before the Time Warner deal was officially announced.

Part 1

Part 2