Monday, February 6, 2012
New Owner Looks To Sell Tsavo Media, Sees Yahoo Penalty Fees
The new owner of former Los Angeles startup Tsavo Media, Canadian-firm Cyberplex, said today that it is looking for "strategic alternatives" for the unit of the firm, after a fiasco involving Yahoo's traffic quality reporting system. Cyberplex said that Tsavo Media was informed that it will be required to pay Yahoo approximately $4.8 million, due to Yahoo's indication that Tsavo was sending it "low quality" traffic. Cyberplex said it had recently learned from Yahoo that--despite prior, positive bi-weekly quality reports from Yahoo--that Yahoo would charge the firm for low quality traffic. Due to the penalty and what Cyberplex described as a unit "heavily encumbered by debt", Cyberplex said it was now looking at "strategic alternatives" for the unit, and that current president Ted Hastings has resigned. Tsavo had been acquired by Cyberplex in 2010, in a deal worth $75M. Tsavo had been founded by former MySpace CEO and current Science Inc. head Mike Jones.