I dunno. This all seems like kabuki to me. I’m rapidly falling toward finding this uninteresting, but…here’s Microsoft’s response to Yahoo rejecting its bid:
MICROSOFT RESPONDS TO YAHOO! ANNOUNCEMENT
Reiterates Full and Fair Proposal for Microsoft-Yahoo! Combination
REDMOND, Wash. — Feb. 11, 2008 — Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) today issued the following statement in response to the announcement by Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) that its Board of Directors has rejected Microsoft’s previously announced proposal to acquire Yahoo!:
It is unfortunate that Yahoo! has not embraced our full and fair proposal to combine our companies. Based on conversations with stakeholders of both companies, we are confident that moving forward promptly to consummate a transaction is in the best interests of all parties.
We are offering shareholders superior value and the opportunity to participate in the upside of the combined company. The combination also offers an increasingly exciting set of solutions for consumers, publishers and advertisers while becoming better positioned to compete in the online services market.
A Microsoft-Yahoo! combination will create a more effective company that would provide greater value and service to our customers. Furthermore, the combination will create a more competitive marketplace by establishing a compelling number two competitor for Internet search and online advertising.
The Yahoo! response does not change our belief in the strategic and financial merits of our proposal. As we have said previously, Microsoft reserves the right to pursue all necessary steps to ensure that Yahoo!’s shareholders are provided with the opportunity to realize the value inherent in our proposal.
just get a room and get it over with for God’s sakes …
Sounds like all the makings of a “Hostile Take Over”. Yahoo should let Google handle the search portion of it and dedicate themselves to expand their banner ads and increase their ad revenue all across. After all they have the “Eyeballs” (Boy, that sounds so passe).
I’m wondering, why no one is discussing another Option.
Why doesn’t Yahoo propose some kind of strategic alliance towards Microsoft. They could bring their search bizz and online advertising systems together (but keeping the rest of Yahoo out of scope) and form a strong competitor to google.
Microsoft would get the marketshare in search without having to make this big invest, what surely will be benefited by Wall Street. They also would’nt have to face the problems of bringing two totally different enterprise cultures together what probably would lead to loosing all the good Yahoo! people (maybe even loosing them to google would be pretty contraproductive).
Yahoo on the other side could keep it’s independence without having to admit, that it lost in fields of search against google.
I think in the long run it’s better to be a strong second source in search, instead of fraternising with the marketleader and becoming an rather unimprotant inoffical attachement to google.
Yahoo should let Google handle the search portion of it and dedicate themselves to expand their banner ads and increase their ad revenue all across.
I am totally against this. I think the web would be significantly less than what it is today if Yahoo gave up search. I always rotate my searches, so that I understand not only what I get from Google, but what I get from Yahoo, MS, Ask, etc. Amazingly enough, I also get lots of relevant results from some of these other search engines.. in quantities nearing the quantities from Google (esp. in the case of Yahoo). But the interest thing is: The relevant results I get on Yahoo are *different* relevant results than the ones I get on Google! But they are nevertheless still relevant!
Losing Yahoo’s search would mean a significant loss in diversity on the web, and I can’t believe that anyone would even consider it.
“This all seems like kabuki to me.” I don’t believe a Kabuki metaphore applies. This inplies Yahoo! and Microsoft are collaborating closely and acting in a scripted manner. I’m no legal expert but I imagine it would probably be in violation of statutes regulating the securities industry. I think high stakes poker game would be a better comparison.
Would seem to me that MS could using search as the trojan horse, of sorts…a bigger battle they are fighting is to aggregate enough users (mail, web apps, etc) to force in their mail, their XPS, their messenger, their mobile OS, etc. And the billions along the way are great…but they have $20B at risk in OS and apps in the commercial and consumer markets.
I agree that it has become boring as a story. It seems pretty obvious that it’s becoming a hostile takeover, that it will probably go through, and that it will break Yahoo in the process. MS is trying to buy what they have not been able to earn, which shows a pretty deep misunderstanding of what search is all about.
the best thing for them to do is to polish their own algo. to get back on the SE industry competition
today issued the following statement in response to the announcement by Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) that its Board of Directors has rejected Microsoft’s previously announced proposal to acquire Yahoo!:)
following statement in response to the announcement by Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) that its Board of Directors has rejected Microsoft’s previously announced proposal to acquire Yahoo!: