Search is AT&T’s next call with Ingenio acquisition

By Giselle Abramovich

November 21, 2007

Neil Strother is an analyst for JupiterResearch

AT&T plans to integrate Ingenio’s PPC ad platform into its directory service and local search advertising portfolio, including the Yellowpages.com Network, AT&T Real Yellow Pages and 1-800-Yellow Pages. Terms of the deal, which is expected to close in January, were not disclosed.

“It looks to me as if AT&T is trying to compete with Google here,” said Neil Strother, an analyst for JupiterResearch, New York.

For the past year or so, billions of dollars have gone into digital advertising acquisitions such as Google’s play for DoubleClick, Yahoo’s purchase of Right Media Exchange, Microsoft’s buy of aQuantive, AOL’s purchase of Tacoda and Axciom’s pitch for EchoTarget.

These players are not the only ones dabbing their feet into interactive marketing.

“We are looking to offer our advertising customers more options when having to do with performance-based marketing,” said Rolf Gatlin, a spokesman at AT&T. “This is our way into interactive marketing.”

Ingenio’s PPC service allows businesses to manage their ad programs and generate phone leads. The platform stipulates unique published phone numbers to track calls to businesses generated by those ads. Advertisers’ fees are based on the volume of these leads.

Following the closing of the acquisition, Ingenio will be integrated within AT&T’s Yellowpage.com and will be overseen by Charles Stubbs, president/CEO of Yellowpages.com.

AT&T expects to retain Ingenio’s management team.

“It’s a beneficial transaction for both sides,” said Marc Barach, chief marketing officer of Ingenio, San Francisco. “We have been innovating around PPC and we’ve done well with it but we have lacked the huge, world-class scale to bring this out. We are well known within the industry, but if you go to Main Street and ask a dry cleaner who we are, chances are they won’t know. AT&T fulfills that need for us.”