America Online (AOL) is following the leads of rivals Google and
Microsoft by buying a firm specializing in tailoring Internet ads to
the tastes or interests of website visitors.
AOL announced Tuesday that it is acquiring TACODA, a New York City
start-up that uses "behavioral targeting" to calculate which online
ads are most likely to result in money-making "clicks" by respective
Internet users.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
AOL, a subsidiary of media colossus Time Warner, is making the
acquisition as competition in the multi-billion dollar online
advertising arena intensifies.
Google is expanding its online advertising empire to video and
graphics realms with the purchase of ad-targeting powerhouse
DoubleClick and Microsoft is trying to keep pace by buying aQuantive
Inc.
Yahoo bolstered its position by taking over online advertising
exchange Right Media.
TACODA was founded in 2001 and has "patent-pending technologies ...
to target relevant messages to specific audience segments," according
to AOL.