Since early this year, Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) has been testing an ad network that allows sponsors to place ads on sites outside the social network. But according to a post in AllThingsDigital, the company has halted the effort.
For Facebook bulls, it’s not good news. An ad network would certainly be a nice revenue generator. Just look at how Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) has minted billions from its own ad-serving platform.
Yet it’s far from easy to create an ad network, especially in terms of getting buy-in from a critical mass of publishers and advertisers. Keep in mind that Facebook also wants to leverage its huge user-information database as well as find ways to capitalize on its mobile traffic. Oh, and the company may even buy an existing ad network, such as Microsoft’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) Atlas.
Despite all this, Facebook is still expected to launch its platform, perhaps in a few months.
Tom Taulli runs the InvestorPlace blog IPO Playbook, a site dedicated to the hottest news and rumors about initial public offerings. He is also the author of “How to Create the Next Facebook” and “High-Profit IPO Strategies: Finding Breakout IPOs for Investors and Traders.” Follow him on Twitter at @ttaulli. As of this writing, he did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
A long-time follower of the IPO scene, back in 1999 Tom started one of the first sites in the space called WebIPO. It was a place where investors got research as well as access to deals for the dot-com boom. Tom also wrote the top-selling book, Investing in IPOs. In it, he covers all the aspects of analyzing an IPO, such as reading the prospectus, detecting the risk factors and understanding some of the arcane regulations. But don’t worry — if that process is too intimidating for you, thankfully Tom will do the legwork for you right here in the IPO Playbook blog.
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