Thursday, February 12, 2009

Google Shuts Radio Advertising Efforts

Search engine giant Google said Thursday that it is exiting from the radio advertising business, putting an end into the firm's attempt to leverage its online advertising success into other media. Google--which pulled the plug on its newspaper advertising efforts on January 20th--said the move came because the radio advertising efforts did not have "the impact we hoped for." Google entered the radio advertising market with the buy of Newport Beach-based dMarc Broadcasting in January of 2006. That deal--which was worth $102M in cash plus up to $1.1 billion in contingent payments--provided Google with automated advertising technology which the firm had hoped would help advertisers buy radio advertising in a method similar to the firm's AdWords program. Google said up to 40 people would be affected by the move; it was unclear how many of those employees were in Google's Irvine offices, where the company's Google Radio efforts were based. According to Google's corporate web site, the Irvine office "began as the center of Google's efforts to change the world of radio ads."

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