When Verizon Communications acquired AOL for $4.4 billion — a big selling point in the purchase was combining AOLs audience and ad technology with Verizon's rich consumer data. Two years after that deal closed, people in the advertising industry say that promise has yet to be realized. Now, Verizon's purchase of Yahoo — set to close on June 13 — will add another layer to the complexity.If Verizon can get it right, it could become a "third giant" in the online advertising industry, and for some a welcome competitor to Facebook and Google, the dreaded duopoly which is sucking up nearly all of the revenue growth in online advertising.And meshing Verizon and AOL together in a way that their strengths can be exploited for targeted advertising was never going to be easy. Just putting together the companies' ad tech pieces is a brutal undertaking, given that Yahoo and AOL have amassed a mix of acquired technology and custom built software and tools, as Digiday's Yuyu Chen reported in April. But for now, progress is slow. "They have made some marginal progress but are nowhere near integrating the disparate data sets or unlocking the vision of integrating their content and people inside Oath," one ad buyer said, referring to the name Verizon plans to use for all of its media assets once Yahoo is part of the picture.
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Verizon could take on Facebook and Google in online advertising — but it is not there yet
If Verizon can get it right, it could become a "third giant" in the online advertising industry, and for some a welcome competitor to Facebook and Google.
It's worth noting that besides blending Verizon and AOL, over the past few years AOL has acquired the mobile ad company Millennial Media and inked a deal to handle ad sales for the Microsoft-owned web portal MSN.Another buyer noted that these remain separated. "Actual integration is way, way far away," he said. "AOL hasn't even integrated MSN or Millennial Media."
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