From Reuters. I have no doubt they are considering it. But I’m not so sure it will happen. Remember, they recently got divorced with regard to ad systems (MSFT used to use Yahoo’s Overture service), and it’s not clear what MSFT brings to Yahoo’s party that the company does not already have. Thoughts?
Stock Market Predicting That Yahoo and MSFT Will Hook UP
From Reuters. I have no doubt they are considering it. But I'm not so sure it will happen. Remember, they recently got divorced with regard to ad systems (MSFT used to use Yahoo's Overture service), and it's not clear what MSFT brings to Yahoo's party that the company does…
Microsoft has search traffic, especially international market share. Microsoft may be able to carve more serach traffic off for themselves with clever search links in Vista. Also, Yahoo is getting smoked by Google internationally. They need help. MSN, especially MSN messenger, gets good usage outside the US where Yahoo needs help.
Gates pins Google into the deal for AOL all the while he has his eye on the real prize?
At the risk of sounding like I missed the last 5 years MS’s relationships with companies like Dell, Motorola, Sprint, Verizon, Samsung, Palm, etc and their integration into the fabric of Corporate America is still a huge hammer in the future of Web media not to mention the database of intentions the combined company would own.
If Yahoo! had access to those same assets would Google still be the most feared name in this landscape?
I don’t see that happening. Yahoo! is getting more into content distribution. Seems like Microsoft is moving away from that when it is dissolving its MSNBC relationship with NBC.
Microsoft would only acquire Yahoo! in a desperation move IMHO.
I agree with other people’s comment that Yahoo! is getting smoked internationally by Microsoft and by Google. Maybe Yahoo! will have to be bought if they cannot grow fast enough abroad.
Being primarily from seperate platforms (web/windows) the two would need to find a solid colaborative footing – which I would speculate to be either entertainment or “web 2.0” based.
Not going to happen. No sane business would shell out the amount of cash that Yahoo would want just to “catch up”. Acquisitions happen when one party is much bigger than the other and the other’s assets can be acquired more cheaply than somehow creating them yourself.
AOL Time Warner happened b/c TW was effectively tricked into believing the value of AOL’s assets were much higher than they really were ;-).