Twitter Is Said to Ready Customer-Matching Ad Tool

Twitter Inc. plans to release a tool that makes it easier for advertisers to find their customers who also use the social-messaging service, according to three people familiar with the matter.

The feature will let marketers use e-mail addresses to identify and target Twitter users who match up with a company’s own customer lists, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plan is private. The tool is similar to a custom-audience feature Facebook Inc. began offering in 2012 and will probably be unveiled by year’s end, the people said.

Twitter, with more than 200 million members, is helping advertisers tailor messages to users who are most likely to click on an ad. The customer-matching service may help the San Francisco-based microblogging site reach its goal of $1 billion in sales next year, and steps up competition with Facebook for social-network advertising revenue, which is set to grow 32 percent this year to $9.08 billion, according to EMarketer Inc.

Twitter Chief Executive Officer Dick Costolo has expanded advertising offerings this year, opening an ad platform used by Adobe Systems Inc. (ADBE) and Salesforce.com Inc. (CRM)and letting marketers reach users based on keywords in their postings.

Jim Prosser, a spokesman for Twitter, declined to comment on products in development.

Facebook’s custom-audience service lets advertisers send messages to users with whom they have an existing relationship, matching them up via e-mail addresses and phone numbers, among other methods. In March, the social network said the number of marketers using the tool had more than doubled.

Separately, Twitter today unveiled a service to help advertisers augment their TV campaigns through synchronized ads on the social-messaging service, according to a blog post. The company’s TV ad targeting lets marketers identify users who have posted messages about live television shows, then direct online ads to those users who may have recently seen a related ad on TV. The service uses technology created by Bluefin Labs, a startup Twitter acquired earlier this year.

Apple E-Books Judge Says U.S. Can Show Pricing Conspiracy

The U.S. has evidence that Apple Inc. (AAPL) participated in a conspiracy to raise the prices of electronic books, the federal judge overseeing the government’s civil antitrust case against the company said.
“I believe that the government will be able to show at trial direct evidence that Apple knowingly participated in and facilitated a conspiracy to raise prices of e-books, and that the circumstantial evidence in this case, including the terms of the agreements, will confirm that,” U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan said yesterday.

Cote is overseeing claims by the Justice Department and a group of states that Apple conspired with publishers to raise the price of e-books and to strip retailers, including Amazon.com Inc., of the ability to set prices. Cote made the remarks today in what was to be the last court conference before a June 3 trial, which is to take as long as three weeks.
The judge, who will decide the case without a jury, stressed that her view was tentative before she has heard testimony and argument from the parties’ lawyers.
“We strongly disagree with the court’s preliminary statements about the case,” Orin Snyder, Apple’s lead lawyer in the case, said yesterday in an e-mailed statement. “The court made clear that this was not a final ruling and that the evidence at trial will determine the verdict. This is what a trial is for.”
‘Benefited Consumers’
He said the “evidence will show that Apple benefited consumers by injecting much-needed competition and innovation into an emerging market.”
The trial is expected to feature evidence including e-mails from Steve Jobs, Apple’s late co-founder.
The U.S. sued Apple and the publishers in April 2012. Apple, based in Cupertino, California, is the only defendant remaining in the case. Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck GmbH’s Macmillan unit, CBS Corp. (CBS)’s Simon & Schuster, Lagardere SCA (MMB)’s Hachette Book Group, Pearson Plc (PSON)’s Penguin unit and News Corp.’s HarperCollins have settled with the government.
The case is U.S. v. Apple Inc., 12-cv-02826, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
To contact the reporter on this story: Bob Van Voris in New York at rvanvoris@bloomberg.net.