All good things must come to an end and this is the final set of profiles of PrimeQ UK staff. Enjoy!

	Name: Alexia Arrizabalaga Age: 26 Star Sign: Sagittarius Job Description: Director of Business Development Describe Yourself in Three Words: sarcastic – hard working - honest Favourite Quotation: "If love is blind, why is lingerie so popular?" Favourite Book: ‘Tales of San Francisco’ Favourite Movie: ‘La Vita e Bella’ Favourite Website: Dailymotion.com Most Embarrassing Moment: so many that I cannot determine which one is the worst Dream Date: Jake Gillenhaal or Prince Harry (love the red hair!)
Name: Ninad Dixit Age: 28 Star Sign: Libra Job Description: Affiliate Service Executive Describe Yourself in Three Words: Adventurous, Risk-taker, Shy Favorite Quotation: ‘Remember, today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday’ Dale Carnegie Favorite Book: I am not into books Favorite Movie: ‘FightClub’ Favorite Website: Youtube.com Dream Date: Halle Berry
	Name: James G. Evans Age: 33 Star Sign: Scorpion Job Description: Affiliate Services Executive... Recruit and keep affiliates happy :-) Describe Yourself in Three Words: Friendly, Good Communicator, Responsible Favorite Quotation: "If you feel that you shouldn't do something, just do it" Favorite Book: ‘The Selfish Gene’ by Richard Dawkins Favorite Movie: 'Cocktail' with Tom Cruise Favorite Website: Matt Cutts Blog Most Embarrassing Moment: A couple of years ago I was dating this girl from Norway. She was blonde, curly hair, cute. We went to some nice nightclub and everything was going on very well but, later at around 2am, after a 'couple' of drinks, I said to her, I'll be back in a second. I went to the toilet. Then on my way back I 'saw' her from behind, and I thought this is the right moment to do it. She couldn't see me. I grabbed her wrist, turned her towards me very fast and started kissing her. Then I noticed there was something different... she was blonde, had curly hair, but had a smoker taste. She was wearing jeans and the girl I was dating didn't smoke n she was wearing a skirt. After some seconds I realized that I was kissing the wrong girl!!! A drunken girl! ... the girl from Norway was only a meter away! I told her the truth! I thought it was her! But she didn't believe me. We stopped dating. I still think about her :-( but I'm still friends with this other blonde :-) Very good friends (she is a brunette now...!). Dream Date: with Claire Forlani (actress).
Full Name: Jasdeep Laly Age: 29 Star Sign: Taurus Job Description: Campaign Executive Describe Yourself in Three Words: Friendly, Professional, Energetic Favorite Quotation: “A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.” Favorite Book: ‘It’s Not about the Bike’ by Lance Armstrong Favorite Movie: True Romance Favorite Website: Has to be Facebook ! Most Embarrassing Moment: no comment ! Dream Date: Angelina Jolie – a little tacky but hey, if it ain’t broke…
	Name: Sherif Alawiye Age: 25 Star Sign: Cancer Job Description: Campaign Executive Describe Yourself in Three Words: Hardworking, Honest, Fun Favorite Quotation: “The only things certain in life are taxes and death” Favorite Book: ‘Back In The Days’ by Jamel Shabazz Favorite Movie: ‘Coming to America’ Favorite Website: MySpace.com Most Embarrassing Moment: Tripping up while walking up the stairs at an underground station. Dream Date: Good conversation and long walk somewhere nice (weather permitting)
Would you like to join the Dream Team? PrimeQ is always on the look out for top notch staff and if you feel you have what is required to work for a dynamic dot.com email Michelle Birkett at mbirkett AT primeq.com with your résumé/CV and a profile of yourself like the people above!

 

Microsoft Buys Front Row Ticket at the Online Advertising Club... for $6 Billion

Microsoft has acquired digital marketing firm AQuantive for $6 billion in a bid to prevent Google's domination of the lucrative online advertising sector.

Microsoft's offer for Seattle-based aQuantive represents almost twice what Google paid just last month for privately held DoubleClick. Both technology giants are moving to strengthen their hands in the booming sector of brokering and managing Internet advertisements.

As reported in the Weekly Q, Microsoft is widely believed to have lost out in a bidding war for DoubleClick. Its all-cash offer for aQuantive, representing an 85-per-cent premium above the firm's market value, is designed to leave little room for a competitor to muscle in.

"We believe it's exactly the right company to buy, and hence we're willing to pay," Microsoft chief financial officer Chris Liddell said on a conference call outlining the deal yesterday.

The move is a huge shift in the Redmond, Wash.-based company's traditional strategy of developing its own businesses from the ground up. Microsoft has built its own search engine and Internet ad brokering system called adCenter, but the efforts have been insufficient to keep pace with Google and Yahoo.

Analysts say Microsoft lost out on acquiring at least two online advertising firms, DoubleClick and 24/7 Real Media Inc., leaving it little choice but to pay a steep premium for aQuantive.

"They were getting very desperate. For all practical purposes, aQuantive was the last property in the market that they could have acquired," said Sameet Sinha, an analyst at Kaufman Bros. LP, an investment banking firm in New York.

"There weren't too many other properties in the market and I think aQuantive is a premium property. Obviously, Microsoft thought it was more premium than I thought, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder," Mr. Sinha said.

Founded in 1997, aQuantive's assets include the ad agency AvenueA/Razorfish, a platform for delivering ads online, and a new online advertising network for connecting buyers and sellers.
Services include online media buying, ad campaign management, and search engine optimization.

This is the year when advertisers will spend nearly as much online as they do on radio, according to eMarketer. The market research firm forecasts that the Internet ad market will be worth about $20-billion in 2007 and that market leader Google will command almost one-third of that windfall.

In contrast, Microsoft's online division continues to lose money, posting a loss of $200-million for the three months ended March 31.
Yahoo, Time Warner and WPP have all recently announced deals to buy major online marketing companies.

 

Microsoft Initiates Low Key Foray into Affiliate Arena

Microsoft has invited select affiliates to join its new affiliate network, a move which demonstrates the increasing importance of affiliate marketing.

The network is built on a customized version of Kowabunga's My Affiliate Program tracking and management technology and "exclusively encompasses all the Microsoft premier affiliate opportunities."

With only one campaign, Windows Live OneCare, and only a select number of US and Canadian residents eligible to open an account, it appears Microsoft has chosen to soft launch the network and grow it organically instead of releasing a fully-fledged network with guns blazing.

Harmony Parsons, who is managing this project, says that affiliates will be invited and accepted on a "rolling basis" over the coming weeks.

“So what does this mean for affiliate marketing in general? In reality, probably not much . . . yet,” writes Mike Allen at Revenews. “Over the long term, though, it could change things as yet another big player moves into affiliate marketing. It signals that Microsoft is willing to build their own network since they have not acquired a major affiliate marketing network like Google, AOL and others have announced or done.”

There are already rumors Microsoft’s next step may be to acquire Think Partnership, Inc., owners of the tracking solution KowaBunga which the new network utilises.

 

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“Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.” Bill Gates Chairman of Microsoft and philanthropist (1955- )   Would you like to write for the Weekly Q on a regular basis? PrimeQ will pay for contributions from talented writers who have knowledge about online advertising. Contact Nadeem Azam on nazam@primeq.co.uk with your details, including a couple of samples of your writing of at least 500 words long each.

 

 

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