Microsoft-Yahoo News Roundup
February 3rd, 2008 (7:11am) Mike Gunderloy 6 Comments
Many online news sources continue to be completely dominated by discussion of Microsoft’s hostile bid to acquire Yahoo! And no wonder: a deal of this magnitude has the potential to touch the lives of pretty much everyone living and working online. It’s a rare web worker indeed who doesn’t use something from one or another of those two companies in their daily lives.
The chatter will probably die down shortly, as it becomes clear whether Yahoo will accept the offer or manage to find a “white knight” to save them from Microsoft. And if the two tech giants do get together, the consolidation process is likely to be long and slow, without overnight changes to any web properties. For those of you who haven’t had the luxury of being immersed in the coverage, here’s our pick of some of the highlights.
Just the Facts - If you want to skip all the analysis, here’s Microsoft’s original press release, the transcript of the press/analyst conference call, Yahoo’s original press release, and the Yahoo FAQ on the acquisition process.
Who Owns What - Blogger Long Zheng has a table showing the overlap between Yahoo and Microsoft web properties. Compete analyzes the traffic numbers to see the impact on visitors and pageviews. Silicon Alley Insider estimates the combined financials of the merged company.
The Inside Scoop - Kara Swisher passes on reports of reaction from inside Yahoo. The Wall Street Journal’s coverage has the play-by-play from within Microsoft.
What’s the Alternative? - Given that Microsoft has offered such a premium, it’s unlikely that Yahoo will survive as an independent company. So who else could buy them besides Microsoft? News Corp or a private equity deal are the leading rumors. Silicon Alley Insider suggests that a private equity deal won’t work.
The End Game - You can play “blind men and the elephant” when predicting the ultimate results of a merger if you want. Some sample opinions: Yahoo’s new blood will revitalize Microsoft, it won’t help Microsoft’s inability to understand the web, Microsoft is fighting the last war, they’ll still have trouble competing with Google.
Related coverage from the GigaOm Network:
- Microsoft Offers to Buy Ailing Yahoo for $44.6 Billion [WWD]
- WWD Debate: Microsoft Wants Yahoo, What do Web Workers Get? [WWD]
- MicroHoo: Welcome to Open Source, Microsoft [WWD]
- Open Thread: Will You Keep Using MicroHoo? [WWD]
- Dear Yahoo, I Pwn You. XO Microsoft. [GigaOm]
- Google Drives Microsoft’s Hostile Bid for Yahoo [GigaOm]
- What Would Micro-Hoo Mean for Video? [NewTeeVee]
6 Comments Post your own comment
Jeff O'Connor says: February 3rd, 2008 12:07pm
“Hostile bid?” Last time I checked Roget’s thesaurus, “unsolicited” didn’t appear in a list of synonyms for “hostile.”
One of the reasons people turn to the Web for information is because they’re turned-off by the monotony and hype of the corporate media. Don’t fall into B.S. trap - just report the damned story.
Thanks.
Curt Monash says: February 3rd, 2008 9:54pm
There’s been much huffing and puffing, but I haven’t seen much thinking through of the MANY ways Microsoft and Yahoo could advance the technological and/or business state of the art. I cited 19 major ones in http://www.texttechnologies.com/2008/02/03/microsoft-yahoo-synergies/, — only 8 of which were in search. And the number is that low only because I got tired.
CAM
Curt Monash says: February 3rd, 2008 9:55pm
Oops. Lose the comma on that last URL, or just click on my name.
Yahoo + Microsoft vs. Google et al - Blog of Leonid Mamchenkov says: February 4th, 2008 3:00am
[...] yet another attempt by Microsoft to buy Yahoo. If you missed all the buzz, Web Worker Daily has a really nice round-up with separate links to facts (read: press releases) and opinions (read: speculations). If [...]
Weekly Web Favorites and Tagged for a Book Meme | Finance and Fat | Improving life by gaining control over money and weight says: February 4th, 2008 6:25pm
[...] a success, but I would love to see a stronger competitor to Google so I am cautiously optimistic. Web Worker Daily published an excellent roundup of that covers just about every angle of this deal. Also see this excellent table of all of the overlapping services Yahoo and Microsoft currently [...]
Michael R. Bernstein says: February 7th, 2008 10:57am
Who else? Hmm. Maybe IBM. They’d be perfectly positioned to upsell ‘enterprise’ versions of many of the Web 2.0 successes that Yahoo has acquired, like Flickr and del.icio.us, would continue the Open Source funding/investments, and there could be some serious cross-fertilization on the infrastructure front.