Conflict of Interest 102- Microsoft Negotiating with Claria

Thanks to a Revenews Reader for calling this to my attention.

According to the New York Times.

For the last two weeks, Microsoft has been in talks to buy a private Silicon Valley company, a move that underscores just how eager Microsoft is to catch up with Google, the search and advertising giant.

The company that Microsoft has pursued is controversial: Claria, an adware marketer formerly called Gator, and best known for its pop-up ads and software that tracks people visiting Web sites. The Gator adware has frequently been denounced by privacy advocates for its intrusiveness.

Shocked? Not I.

I am not surprised by this as I have been predicting Claria might be exiting the pop-up business and plans to focus on behavioral ad targeting. Given that Microsoft stopped using pop-ups some time ago, you can bet the pop-ups would be the first to go.

See Prediction

This all sounds great- if you are a media buyer. (I have to wonder if this a clear signal that Claria will eventually exit the pop-up business? I don’t know.)

Perhaps I was correct.

This also comes to no surprise to some anti-spyware vendors who have speculated that while the Microsoft anti-spyware tool is efficacious, their numerous conflicts of interest make it difficult for them to assault problematic software from a neutral standpoint.

PostScript: Additional Reads from the Blogosphere

Chris Boyd of VitalSecurity.org covers the story.

Suzi Turner of SpywareWarrior.com covers the story here

Nik Cubrilovic of Perfected.org covers the story here

Ed Bott also has some interesting insight into this dubious transaction.

If you find further blogs on this development feel free to contact me at wporter@gmail.com