WebProNews » Tyroo

Yahoo India’s Managing Director To Depart

Doug Caverly — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 16:58:36 +0000

Yahoo India will soon be deprived of its managing director – reports indicate that George Zacharias has put in his “four-to-six week notice.” After concluding his career with Yahoo, Zacharias intends “to pursue his own entrepreneurial interests.”

And perhaps because of that plan to go solo (as opposed to, say, work for Google), the search company appears to have made its peace with Zacharias’s decision. “We wish George success in achieving his personal goals,” said Keith Nilsson, who will fill in as managing director.

According to exchange4media, Nilsson then continued along a back-to-business, we’ll-be-fine path, saying, “As India continues to be a major focus for Yahoo!, we are excited about the aggressive pace that we have set ourselves to realize the enormous opportunities in this market, and grow the business both organically and inorganically.”

That reassurance may be especially necessary considering a fresh deal between Google and Bharti Airtel, India’s largest private broadband and telephone service provider. That’s not to say that Yahoo isn’t competitive in India – it recently launched Yahoo India Advertising and bought a 35 percent stake in the Tyroo advertising agency – but the Airtel-Zacharias double whammy has to hurt.

Zacharias feels everything will be all right. “[I] know that Yahoo! India will continue to scale greater heights as the leading Internet company in this country,” he said.

Yahoo Buys Significant Stake In Tyroo Ad Agency

Doug Caverly — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 15:44:09 +0000

Yahoo and Google both appear dedicated to growing their presence in the Indian market, and to this end, Yahoo recently announced that it had bought a stake in Tyroo Media. Call this one a “significant investment” (as Yahoo does) – it’s equal to about 35% of the company’s value.

For those who haven’t heard of Tyroo, an official press release does a decent job of filling in the details. “Tyroo, a part of Smile Interactive Technologies Group (Smile Group), is a completely self-serve ad-network offering best of breed advertising solutions for both advertisers and publishers. Today, Tyroo boasts of over 1200 registered publishers across the country.”

And that’s not bad, although, given Yahoo’s financial state, now might not be the best time for the search engine company to make this announcement. Details of the deal remain unknown, however, so it’s hard to say exactly what was exchanged; even The Hindu, which is often especially well-informed about Indian developments, remains in the dark.

In any event, “The cash infusion by Yahoo! will be used to invest aggressively in technology and sales network to reach out to the vast number of small and medium sized advertisers and publishers in India,” according to the release.

George Zacharias, the managing director of Yahoo India, adds, “Through this investment, Yahoo! will act as a catalyst for the entire ad-network industry, which is still in a nascent stage, in India.”