Microsoft offers to buy Yahoo!….. My thoughts
February 1, 2008
Well it is all over the news and blogs today…. Microsoft has offered to buy Yahoo! for $44.6 Billion dollars. Wow is all I have to say. If this merger goes through it will definitely put some pressure on Google.For a moment take a look at what this could mean. Yahoo! is an internet giant. They do pretty much anything and everything. Their product services include: Yahoo News, Yahoo Music, Yahoo Shopping, Yahoo Games, etc etc etc. They are also one of the main competitors of Google in terms of their ads system. Of course, they are one of the pioneers in the whole search engine game as well. Now what will this mean for Microsoft? If they do acquire Yahoo then they will become huge players in the online media market. They will have two solid sites in MSN.com and Yahoo.com, and it will allow them to compete more directly with Google in three main areas: 1) Yahoo Shopping vs. Google Shopping, 2) Yahoo Mail/Hotmail/Live Mail vs. Gmail, and 3) Word Processing. Robert Scoble makes a great point in his blog when he says that this merger will allow Microsoft to successfully bring their Office platform online to compete with Google’s Docs application. I think that overall this is a very interesting proposal, and while I hate Microsoft for many reasons (too many native applications, Hotmail doesn’t work on my Mac all the time, 360’s mess up all the time, etc.) I do feel they need to make this acquisition in order to be able to compete with Google in the future. Google’s whole business model revolves around online content, and right now Microsoft’s is somewhat lacking in that department (or their current offerings (MSN) aren’t as successful as they thought they would be)That’s just my two cents-Dave C.
February 1, 2008 at 3:52 pm
[...] About Microsoft offers to buy Yahoo!….. My thoughts [...]
February 1, 2008 at 4:07 pm
I was surprised by this move by Microsoft. It will be interesting to see what happens with this deal. I was reading about this today and the stock rose $9.43, (49.2% ) earlier in the day, which is quite a bit.
February 1, 2008 at 5:11 pm
According to http://www.alexa.com/site/ds/top_500 Yahoo is the top site in the world.
Definitely makes things interesting. Microsoft would own 3 of the top 5 sites on the web (1, 4, 5). Google holds down 2, and 3.
Personally I hate this…. If Microsoft manages to mess up my Yahoo! Fantasy Football league I will be very angry.
February 1, 2008 at 6:51 pm
I’m kind of surprised that the United States and Canada are different according to http://www.alexa.com. Only slightly different, but I’m still kind of surprised.
February 1, 2008 at 10:14 pm
Well this was listed under Dave Winer of Scripting News’ Twitter…
http://twitter.com/davewiner/statuses/666836442
February 2, 2008 at 2:54 am
[...] The contact importer is definitely an idea with possibilities, and what with the newly announced Microhoo monster, at least Google is still focusing on future potential needs and generating innovative [...]
February 2, 2008 at 11:39 am
I think it will be a great acquisition by Microsoft. We should not be surprise because I think Microsoft just wants to answer Google’s challenge.
February 2, 2008 at 1:01 pm
This is clearly an attempt by Microsoft to strengthen its position against Google in search engine and web based advertisement market. However, web-publishers and advertisers ultimately will benefit out of this as both Google and Microsoft-Yahoo will try to expand their market share.
February 2, 2008 at 1:26 pm
I agree. Microsoft will strengthen there portfolio with this acquisition if the deal goes through. This will create competition with Google which is good. Microsoft has a lot of money to play with, and can build this company with there money.
February 4, 2008 at 12:39 am
Microsoft must have offered to acquire yahoo but the question is whether yahoo will accept. I highly doubt that since yahoo is well established and is doing well. Other reports have indicated yahoo’s interest to acquire maven networks for video broadcasting. I beleive yahoo would rather grow than sell its business.