Blinkx contests Harvard professor’s concerns about its business model

London-listed video search and ad company Blinkx said it “strongly refutes” assertions made in a blog post that raised concerns about its business model and sent shares in the company down by more than half on Thursday. Traders had earlier cited the posting by Harvard Business School professor Benjamin Edelman as the reason for the sell-off. It questions Blinkx’s advertising tactics and the value the company provided for advertisers.

The video website Blinkx is contesting a Harvard professor’s analysis that accuses the company of charging advertisers for video ads that users rarely see. Ben Edelman, an associate professor at Harvard Business School, published a technical analysis of the company’s services earlier this week that claims to have found suspicious advertising software wrapped into Blinkx applications. “Few users would affirmatively request adware that shows extra pop-ups, so Blinkx uses deceptive tactics to sneak adware onto users’ computers,” Edelman wrote in the paper.