The technology industry is heading towards its maturity stage, leaving little room for growth. A new ray of hope has emerged, however, as some industry players have repositioned their strategies to revive the technology industry. These companies are trying to attract visitors and advertisers by coming up with innovative products and continue to make investments to add new features. In this article, I will find out how Baidu.com, Inc. (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU), Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) and Yandex NV (NASDAQ:YNDX) are implementing their new techniques to survive in the industry and which have been successful so far.
Baidu.com, Inc. (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU)
Baidu.com, Inc. (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU), the leading Chinese-language Internet provider, announced its intent to purchase the entire issued share capital of 91 Wireless, a subsidiary of Netdragon Websoft, Inc. (OTCMKTS:NDWTY). 91 Wireless is mainly engages in the development and operation of two leading smartphone applications distribution platform in China. Up until now, over 10 billion apps have been downloaded through this platform and it is declared as the top-ranked third party apps distributor in China. The company was acquired for $1.9 billion and provides a huge potential for Baidu.com, Inc. (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU). It will help the company achieve greater prominence in the mobile Internet market and will increase its earnings and capital base.
In addition to this, Baidu.com, Inc. (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU) made another acquisition at the beginning of this month. In this transaction, it acquired the online video business of Post Properties Inc (NYSE:PPS), the leading Chinese Internet video provider, for $370 million. The online video business will be merged into Baidu.com, Inc. (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU)’s video platform, iQiyi. The combined entities will provide China’s largest online video platform in terms of number of mobile users and video viewing time. The synergy created by the merger includes better marketing value and a broader range of options for advertisers. It will build a base for Baidu to become a great technology company with strong media DNA.
Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO)
Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) has launched Nuevo Pais, Nueva Vida in collaboration with The Western Union Company (NYSE:WU). The new immigration resources website is available on Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) en Espanol and provides educational information about the immigration process through editorial articles, slideshows, videos and other content. This service will draw more Hispanic users to the company’s website.
In its latest acquisition, Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) purchased Admovate, an advanced mobile and technology startup. Admovate will help marketers reach their desired audience at the right time and at the right place. The company’s personalization technology will increase Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO)’s capacity for mobile advertising.
The company has also acquired Tumblr, Inc. for $1.1 billion in the last month. Tumblr will bring complementary content to Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO)’s media network and search experiences. It is anticipated that by acquiring Tumblr, Yahoo!’s audience will increase by 50%. This will help in increasing Yahoo!’s revenues, which have been shrinking over the years. The acquisition is overpriced, however, as the Tumblr’s 2012 revenue was only $13 million and it will be hard for the company to recover its acquisition costs in the next few years.
Yandex NV (NASDAQ:YNDX)
Now let’s see what steps have been taken by the largest European Internet company, Yandex NV (NASDAQ:YNDX), which operates Russia’s most popular search engine. The company has entered into a joint venture with SBERBANK RUSSIA (OTCMKTS:SBRCY). Under this deal, the bank acquired 75% interest in the charter capital of Yandex NV (NASDAQ:YNDX). Money for approximately $60 million. The goal of this venture is to bring innovation in online retail payment solutions. It will provide a payment solution for small and medium-sized businesses, and will also provide solutions for both online and offline customers to make frequent simple transactions.
