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Another acquistion to bite the dust?

I received a notice last week from Dapper who I’m a big fan of.  They specialize in dynamic ad units that adjust themselves based on different variables, assisting online advertisers with pushing the right message to the right “user”.  Seems they recently signed a deal with Yahoo! to be acquired by the portal which will help them leverage audience resources.  Details from WSJ here.

On the surface, good for them!  But in the back of my mind I recollect a few other recent acquisitions that seemed to go nowhere….  AdMob’s acquistion by Google.  Quattro Wireless’ acquisition by Apple.  Etc Etc.  I’ve worked with a lot of these companies before their acquisition and was happy to have them as a resource.  But it seems when the bigger players come onboard, these newly formed business units don’t get very much further.  It’s almost as if the acquisition happens just to make the headlines, then nothing.  The companies come in, dismantle the organizations and define their next steps.  But the “next steps” never really happen.  This is a tremendous injustice to us digital advertisers as it pretty much “removes” these service providers and audience resources from being real contenders in our media planning. 

I can only hope in Dapper’s case that Yahoo! allows their original vision and execution of technology to move forward as it is certainly on the right track.  I think that those in charge of the acquisition and assimilation of companies into their own culture often forget and lose sight of what attracted them to purchase in the first place.  Perhaps this will be a better deal, given that it’s focused around a tool that provides a fantastic option for online marketers looking to refine their message for each individual user.  Good luck guys!