Think New Ideas, N.Y., announced plans to acquire interactive agency, BBG New Media, Boston, for an undisclosed amount of cash and stock. Think will take over the BBG office, staffing it primarily with BBG employees. BBG has a number of Boston-based clients, including Buck Consultants and Bank Boston. Think is part of Omnicom Group’s Communicade unit.
wWire Networks, San Mateo, Calif., which produces women’s content, created a home page to centralize its Web sites. The site, at www.women.com, links Women’s Wire, Beatrice’s Web Guide, which is a joint venture with Yahoo and Prevention’s Healthy Ideas, a joint venture with Rodale Press.
The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition said last week that it has reached a paid subscriber base of more than 150,000 paid subscribers. The WSJIE launched in April ’96.
wInternet Profiles Corp., Redwood City, Calif., has agreed to acquire the assets of NetCount, its Los Angeles-based competitor. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The merger gives I/Pro a potential client base of 400 sites, which the company says receives 70 percent of Internet ad spending.
Borders.com will be the exclusive bookseller on CNET’s Web sites, including Snap! Online. When Borders.com launches in January with a significant online sales service, News.com, CNET.com, Gamecenter.com, Search.com and Download.com will link to the Borders site for access to book titles related to those CNET Web sites. Borders entered into a similar arrangement last week with Infoseek.
Online ad rates are slipping, according to a report released last week from Focalink Communications, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based ad management company. In a study of 30 Web site categories such as entertainment, sports and news, twenty showed a decline in the average cost per thousand users (CPM) paid by advertisers. Overall, the sites had dipped from $39.26 in September to $38.30 in October.
Clarification: A story in the October 20th IQ News stated that Deutsch had severed its contract with Novo New Media, calling for Novo to work on a Web site for IKEA. Though Novo and Deutsch did work jointly on the site, Novo never had a contractual relationship with Deutsch.
IQ News: Bits
