January 9th, 2007
Yahoo's MyBlogLog purchase by the numbers
Yahoo's acquisition of MyBlogLog.com is getting a lot of play in the blogosphere, perhaps too much for an acquisition reportedly valued at $10 million.
Perhaps, it was Om Malik's man on the spot coverage for GigaOM that gives the story some heft. It was a nice account. Or maybe it's the neat concept behind MyBlogLog that makes the story interesting. Then again it could be the false starts behind the story and rumors of a deal.
In any case, I found myself looking for some perspective based on following the money. Here's what I found:
–The $10 million price of MyBlogLog is a little more than $5 million less than the amount David Filo reaped by selling Yahoo shares between Oct. 26 and Dec. 20 ($15.4 million). Perspective on that perspective: Filo still owns a ridiculous amount (84 million shares as of March 10, 2006) so don't think he's bailing. He's merely diversifying.
–The $10 million price of MyBlogLog is 0.84% of the $1.18 billion in cash and cash equivalents Yahoo had as of Sept. 30.
–It's also $2.58 million less than Terry Semel's total compensation (base salary, restricted stock, options and other) in 2005.
–MyBlogLog had 1 million unique visitors that have visited the site, according to Compete.com. That works out to $10 a user.
Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and Editorial Director of ZDNet sister site TechRepublic. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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