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What Will Yahoo Buy Itself For Its Birthday?

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Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) celebrated its 15th birthday this week with cupcakes for reporters, a Collective Soul concert for its staff, and several high-profile media and tech conference appearances for its CEO. But the company also hinted about some things it might buy for itself. At least twice this week, CEO Carol Bartz referred to two general categories of companies Yahoo might be interested in purchasing: analytics firms and women-centered sites.

During an interview with AdAge, Bartz referred to “acquiring an audience—a group of female bloggers,” as well as to “better analytics tools that help us guide campaigns with our partners.” To the crowd at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference, she said Yahoo was looking at “smallish acquisitions around analytics and mom sites.”

SEE ALSO: As Yahoo Starts Buying Again, Some Lessons From Past Deals

So what would fit with Yahoo? “Analytics” seems a bit too vague to speculate. But Yahoo has had success with Shine, the site aimed at women aged 25 to 54 it launched two years ago—and it’s logical that Yahoo would want to bulk up in that category.

Possibilities abound and it depends on exactly what Bartz means; Is the company interested specifically in reaching moms or more generally the female demographic? (We’ve asked Yahoo for clarification and will update if we hear back).

If Yahoo wants mom-specific content, the company could go after a site like ModernMom. But if Yahoo is interested in a network of female bloggers one fit could be BlogHer, which claims to be the largest community of women who blog. BlogHer, though, is already tied to NBC Universal’s iVillage. An alternative is female-focused blog network Sugar, which has taken back ad sales from NBC Universal (NYSE: GE) and also repurchased the media giant’s shares last summer.

A more general target would be Glam Media—which has the highest reach among women on the web. However, Glam’s network extends beyond just women and it also might be too rich for Yahoo (It just raised a $50 million mezzanine round at a $750 million valuation). Others?

Mar 5, 2010 6:25 PM ET

Yahoo Cupcakes Photo: Flickr / Yodel Anecdotal


Posted In: Media & Publishing, Women-Centric Content, Money, M&A & Venture Capital, Mergers & Acquisitions, Companies, Yahoo

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