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Technology Stocks : AltaVista Company (ALTA) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: fut_trade who wrote (107)	10/23/2001 8:14:24 PM
From: Glenn Petersen	Respond to of 110

AltaVista serving up out-of-date listings news.cnet.com By Stefanie Olsen Staff Writer, CNET News.com October 23, 2001, 1:55 p.m. PT Once high-flying Internet-search service AltaVista is falling further from the top ranks in its field as the company struggles to keep its search results up-to-date. AltaVista hasn't fully updated its database of millions of Web pages since July, according to company spokeswoman Kristy Kaspar. Most search engines refresh their databases every month. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company "has fallen behind schedule," she said. The company's housekeeping troubles come as its popularity has plummeted. In September 2000, Jupiter Media Metrix reported that AltaVista had about 13.9 million unique visitors for the month. A year later, the company drew only 6.8 million visitors for the same period. In contrast, Google shot from 5.7 million visitors in September 2000 to 18 million visitors last month. "AltaVista has lost a huge amount of its audience," said Danny Sullivan, editor of industry newsletter Search Engine Watch. "How Google has shot up the charts is in direct proportion to how AltaVista has declined. "AltaVista has gone from being one of the top search engines...to looking like they're struggling to be a third-tier player. This is just another blow that the service didn't need." AltaVista, once known as a premier search provider among Internet cognoscenti, has seen its fortunes ebb along with those of its once red-hot owner, CMGI. The search company has undergone a number of strategy makeovers, including a failed attempt to challenge Yahoo and AOL Time Warner in the portal business. It followed those forays with a retrenchment billed as a return to its roots. In February, the company touted enhancements to its site as "further demonstration of the company's commitment to search leadership," according to a press release. At the time, the company redesigned its site for faster load times and "reformulated its relevancy algorithms and increased the size of its Web page index for more relevant, accurate results." While it might seem that technology is the cause for the delay, Kaspar said that's not the case. "It's not something that's broken. It's just a big challenge to get as many pages as you can," she said. "We are unfortunately just behind schedule. We know that all of this is imperative. Within the next weeks we will be back to the most updated index." She added that the company has "crawled" the Web pages across the Internet but has not updated the index yet. Paid vs. free listings AltaVista catalogs between 500 million and 600 million Web pages and typically refreshes them within 45 to 60 days. Other search services, including Fast Search, update their engines every 30 days. Google typically updates every 28 days. AltaVista has more than 40 customers that license its search index and more than 1,000 portals powered through those partners, including MyWay, InfoSpace/Go2Net and CNET Networks, publisher of News.com. Some Web pages found on AltaVista search are getting refreshed. But those are mainly from AltaVista's paid-inclusion programs, which were launched this summer as a way for the company to diversify revenues during an online-advertising drought. AltaVista sells expedited placement in its search engine to companies including eBay and Amazon that list more than 500 Web addresses at once. It also sells "express inclusion" to small and midsized companies submitting fewer domain names. Both programs, which are working, update Web addresses on a weekly basis. Its free URL submission service is updated every four to six weeks. Defending the company's commercial inclusions, Kaspar said they are much easier to add to the index than a broader update. The company must go through many steps to refresh its database of Web pages, including checking pages for duplications and running the data through relevancy algorithms, she said. Meanwhile, commercial listings can be expedited because companies submit their addresses through a direct XML feed into the index. In addition, express inclusions are handled by an AltaVista partner, InfoSpider. Sullivan called the company's inability to update search results "inexcusable" and said it feeds suspicions that paid listings take priority over generic search results. "This is something people have been paranoid about," he said. "If you're going to start charging people to submit, does that mean Web sites that can't afford to pay will get overlooked?"

To: fut_trade who wrote (107)	2/18/2003 11:44:03 PM
From: Glenn Petersen	Respond to of 110

Overture to buy AltaVista for $140 mln By Lisa Baertlein PALO ALTO, Calif., Feb 18 (Reuters) - Internet search company Overture Services Inc. <OVER.O> on Tuesday said it would buy Web portal AltaVista from CMGI Inc. <CMGI.O> in a $140 million deal aimed at boosting its own "competitive advantages". Overture, which gives advertisers a way to bid for well-placed spots among Web search results distributed to partners like Yahoo Inc. <YHOO.O> and Microsoft Corp.'s MSFT.O> MSN, agreed to pay AltaVista with common stock currently worth $80 million plus $60 million in cash. It also said it would assume some of AltaVista's liabilities. AltaVista's selling price is a far cry from the last one fetched by company, which is best known for being one of the first to offer an easy way to search the Web. In 1999, now-struggling CMGI paid Compaq Computer Corp. $2.3 billion for an 83 percent stake in Palo Alto, California-based AltaVista. Compaq has since merged with Hewlett-Packard Co. <HPQ.N> Overture shares shed 8 percent of their value on the after-hours news, falling to $20.90 from their Nasdaq close of $22.79. Shares of CMGI, formerly a high-flying Internet holding company, jumped nearly 22 percent to $1.01 after finishing the regular Nasdaq session at 83 cents. U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray analyst Safa Rashtchy said AltaVista has solid core technology and plenty of patents, but hasn't done a great job lately of translating those assets into products. "There's a chance for Overture to rejuvenate that potential," Rashtchy told Reuters. The acquisition, which is slated to close in April, is expected to be "dilutive in the near term," Overture Chief Financial Officer Todd Tappin said during a conference call with analysts. Tappin declined to update Overture's guidance, saying the Pasadena, California, company was still working out integration plans and future strategies. Nevertheless, Overture said it sees the purchase adding to earnings by mid-2004. COMPETITIVE QUESTIONS Competitive questions have been front and center in analysts' minds since Yahoo announced late last month that it had hired Overture's vice president of search to do the same job in its search unit. Although both companies have said their relationship remains strong, some analysts have speculated that Yahoo might be exploring the creation of its own internal paid-search products. "We were not motivated to act by other external factors," Overture President and Chief Executive Ted Meisel said during the company conference call. "We do not believe we are creating a competitor for our partners," he added. Meisel said the tie-up would help Overture strengthen its offerings, allow the company to syndicate AltaVista's advanced algorithmic search technology that scours the Web for answers to users' queries, and give Overture a place to test new products and services before rolling them out to partners. MSN declined comment through a spokeswoman. Representatives from Yahoo were not immediately available for comment. Rashtchy said Overture's move "chips away a little bit" at the company's assertion that it's not competing with its partners. He did, however, say that the purchase will likely be the first of many mergers and acquisitions in the search space. "There is going to be a lot of activity. This is just the beginning; by no means is the landscape settled yet." (Additional reporting by Ben Berkowitz in Los Angeles and Jeffrey Goldfarb in New York) 02/18/03 20:36 ET Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.