What’s Old is Acquired Again: Microsoft’s Acquisition of Jellyfish

Hot on the heels of the new Live Search announcement and CEO Steve Ballmer’s astounding advertising revenues declaration, Microsoft has acquired Wisconsin based social shopping (some would say web2.0 shopping) property Jellyfish.

Here is the official announcement from Microsoft:

We want to welcome some new folks to the Live Search family - we recently purchased a company called Jellyfish.com, based in Madison, Wisconsin. Jellyfish has done some really innovative work in comparative shopping engines. We think the technology has some interesting potential applications as we continue to invest heavily in shopping and commerce as a key component of Live Search. Stay tuned for more great stuff from our new colleagues in Madison!

The Jellyfish site is currently “down for maintenance,” but there was a flurry of coverage last summer when the site launched. Basically, Jellyfish’s differentiation point from the competitive social shopping space was the ability to offer users a revenue share based on purchases originating with Jellyfish.

Jeff Doak posted his thoughts on Jellyfish last June in a post entitled “What’s Old Is New Again in Affiliate Marketing“, and makes the point that this is nothing new if you are familiar with eBates and other cashback affiliates (Cashbaq for instance).

Also interesting and valuable are the comments from industry heavy hitters that follow in the discussion. The post is definitely worth a re-read and reconsideration in the wake of an acquisition by Microsoft.

Additional: Jeff Molander interviewed Jellyfish CEO Brian Wiegand in a 25 minute podcast last November. It’s an interesting listen given the acquisition and Microsoft’s admitted plans to become a leader in online advertising.

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