Microsoft

In case you didn't believe him the first 20 times, Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer repeated today at the company's annual shareholders' meeting that he has no intention of making another offer for Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO).

Around the Net In Online Marketing: Microsoft Waiting On New Yahoo CEO To Close Search Deal

Big Four ad agency Publicis is now buying in to Latin American digital advertising, acquiring Sao Paulo-based Tribal to add to its Digitas online ad group. Digitas CEO Laura Lang said Tribal is "fundamental" to expanding in the growing region. Publicis bought Digitas back in 2006 and has grafted on various international digital acquisitions in the UK, India, Singapore, China and its native France, so this will be a foothold across the Atlantic.

The news that Jerry Yang would be stepping aside as CEO of Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) cheered investors, but online ad industry execs aren't sure much has changed. And while shareholders would be thrilled by a Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) takeover, advertisers and publishers can't tell if that will ultimately prove positive either.

Let's agree right away that YouTube's Sponsored Video isn't the next Google Killer. It's not even the next Yahoo killer, even though comScore recently reported that YouTube is now the second largest search engine.Fittingly, around the time that the comScore news broke, Google publicly launched search-triggered Sponsored Video ads on YouTube. Does this mean marketers need to consider YouTube over Yahoo and Microsoft?

For most of the sports-viewing world, the big news in the deal announced today between ESPN (NYSE: DIS) and the Bowl Championship Series is the price tag—an estimated $500 million—and the apparently inexorable move of major sports from free over-the-air broadcast to subscription-supported cable.

Around the Net In Online Marketing: Microsoft Stands To Benefit From Falling Tech Prices

I might be the only person on the planet who isn't sure that Jerry Yang stepping down is really the best thing. The defining drama during Yang's stint as CEO this time around was the on-again/off-again talks with Microsoft. OK, so the stock price today would suggest that deal should have been taken, if it was ever really on the table, but that's over now. Move on. What Yahoo needs to do now is asses all of its incredibly valuable pieces and figure out how the whole of Yahoo can add up to more than the sum of its parts to offer unparalleled value to people and marketers alike.

Yahoo's stock had another down day—its last trade dropped $0.19 to close at $10.63—but it could have a nice lift as word of Jerry Yang's decision to step down as CEO takes hold.

Looks like Yahoo will have to re-draw their org chart. Again. Jerry Yang announced he would step down as CEO of the company and we've suggested possible candidates to replace him, including a to-do list. In the meantime, a timeline below of all things Yahoo-Yang, beginning in January 2008, leading up to November.