ExchangeWire rounds up some of the biggest stories in the European digital advertising space.

1. Google Settlement Ends Three-Year Legal Dispute

Google has succumb to pressure from the European Commission, agreeing to give rivals’ links the same prominence as its own in search returns settling a three-year antitrust probe into the search giant.

The US company has agreed to offer three links to rival services that will appear next to its own specialised search results - such as Google Shopping or Flights – whereas it had relegated competitors’ listings to the lower reaches of its search results.

Microsoft was the main instigator in lobbying against Google, and had succeeded in mobilising European authorities into investigating its dominance of the search market in Europe.

settlement means Google escapes a fine of up to $5bn and brings to an end the protracted legal wranglings. A previous offer to display rivals' results in a separate shaded box was rejected by the Commission.

The news comes as this site offered a concise analysis of Google’s most recent financial filings, noting Google’s ambitions to diversify its revenues.

2. Yahoo’s UK Head Wildman Exits

Yahoo’s top UK managing director James Wildman has left the company after three years to be replaced by the company’s Stuart Flint, currently its UK sales director, as the company reorganises its European operations to be centralised in Ireland.

A Yahoo statement reads: “As we have stated in the past, the structure of our business is driven by business needs and we believe it is in the best interest of our users to have Yahoo EMEA provide all services for all users in the region.

“There are a number of factors which influence such business decisions from our perspective: Ireland has an extensive data centre infrastructure that helps us serve our EMEA users in the most efficient way.”

Ireland, is a popular European hub for US technology giants, and home of some of Europe’s most lenient corporation tax laws.

The statement continued: “There are a number of factors which influence such business decisions from our perspective: Ireland has an extensive data centre infrastructure that helps us serve our EMEA users in the most efficient way”.

This also comes the same week it was that Mojiva’s Mocean Mobile was to be integrated into Yahoo’s newly revamped Ad Exchange.

3. Twitter, AOL Results Rung In

Twitter this week held its first earnings call since its IPO in November last year with its fourth quarter revenue of totalling $243m, while AOL delivered its strongest revenue increase in years.

Twitter claimed that mobile continued to be a strong driver with over 75% of ad revenues generated on mobile devices – up from 55% year beforehand. Ad revenue reached $220m – up 121% year on year – and up 43% from the previous quarter. Ad revenue per 1,000 timeline views reached $1.76

Twitter CEO, Dick Costolo, said: “We are confident in our ability to continue to scale revenue by expanding our global reach and introducing and scaling new ad products. In Q4 we launched a number of advertising services in order to serve both brand and direct response advertisers with tailored audiences.

Meanwhile, AOL claimed it had its best year in the last decade, with advertising revenue reaching $507, for the quarter (up 23% year on year) and full year earnings of $1.6bn (up 14% year on tear).

The earnings release said: “The period included 63% growth in Third Party Network revenue driven by growth in the sale of premium formats across AOL’s programmatic platform and by the inclusion of revenue from Adap.tv. Third Party Network Revenue grew 20%, excluding Adap.tv.

4. Rubicon Issues S1 Filing

Rubicon filed for an initial public offering (IPO) on Tuesday (4 February) adding to Criteo and Rocketfuel as a list of ad tech firms opting to float on the stock market, with the note indicating that it is looking to raise $100m. The company has yet to reveal any pricing of its offering

The company reported revenues of $55.7m for the first nine months of 2013, up 48% from $37.6m during the same period in 2012. Meanwhile, its net loss shrank from $15.4m in 2011 to $2.4m in 2012. Its loss for the first nine months of 2013 was $9.2m, according to the filings.

5. Xaxis Acquires BannerConnect

Earlier in the week, WPP trading desk Xaxis announced it has acquired Bannerconnect for an undisclosed fee, just days after it formally unveiled its Brand Suite to the UK advertising market. Bannerconnect (a 40-plus man outfit based in the Netherlands) will continue under the leadership of its current CEO Sebastiaan Schepers, and also follows Xaxis announcing the full integration of 24/7 Media into its fold.