The Buzz: July 21, 2003

Yahoo Performs Overture

Yahoo made its boldest move yet in consolidating the Web search space last week when it announced plans to buy Overture Services in a cash and stock deal valued at $1.63 billion.

In the deal, Yahoo will get Overtures paid search business, which lets advertisers buy placement on search results Web pages. Paid search has revived the Internet advertising industry. Investment company Piper Jaffray values paid search as a $2 billion business set to grow to $5 billion by 2006.

Yahoo earlier this year bought Inktomis commercial Web search business, and Overture acquired AllTheWeb.com and AltaVista.com.

"The companies will provide the most compelling and diversified suite of integrated marketing solutions around the globe," Terry Semel, chairman and CEO of Yahoo, said in a statement. The transaction is expected to close by next quarter.

Catch Him if You Can

Frank Abagnale, a leading fraud-detection expert and author of "Catch Me If You Can," last week joined NuTech Solutions as board adviser.

The company provides predictive analytics and profit optimization software.

Abagnale was the subject of the 2002 movie "Catch Me If You Can," starring Tom Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio.

After getting caught running his own fraud schemes, Abagnale worked with the FBI and companies to create fraud-detection procedures and programs, as well as secure checks.

Bonuses Attract It Workers

IT employers are using short-term incentive and bonus pay to improve IT workers job performance, according to a new study.

People3, a Gartner company, found that such quick fixes are now popular with 39.1 percent of those surveyed, compared with 30.9 percent last year. The survey, "2003 IT Market Compensation Study," surveyed 151 organizations in March and reflects compensation data for 43,990 IT employees in the United States.

The study found that average base IT salary increased 2.9 percent from year-ago figures. There was a 4.2 percent increase in median base salary of all IT jobs for the same time frame.