Yahoo and Microsoft merger rumors are heating up again as Yahoo board members were reportedly at the table again yesterday, discussing a partnership between Yahoo and Microsoft’s Bing Search Technology. It feels like it has been years since the Yahoo Microsoft search rumors started heating up, and over that time Yahoo has been stripped down more of an efficient content & search driven entity, while Microsoft has vastly improved its internal search technology with the launch of Bing.
Coupled with recent news of a 17% Microsoft plunge in sales last quarter, which will assist Yahoo’s leverage in these negotiations, perhaps the time for a merger or partnership is now.
Via paidContent :
The 13 percent drop in the company’s online services division was driven by a 14 percent drop in online advertising sales largely due to weakness in display ads, executives said. Search revenue, however, was flat compared to a year ago and page views were up.
One interesting change in events is Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz changing her stance on Microsoft Search, in a statement which may foreshadow a new deal between the two companies :
“I actually think Bing is a good product. I think they’ve done a good job, but unfortunately they are only a month into it. I think Microsoft should be given kudos for Bing.”
This statement by Bartz is a bit different than her statement on Bing from only a month ago (via Ars) :
“I don’t know if Bing means a whole lot to Yahoo. I think people will go to Bing because they are curious. I think they will get some uplift, but people will keep their same habits.”
Sounds like a bit of a political change of mindset to me. Will these kind words from Bartz help open up more dialog between Yahoo and Microsoft? That decision is ultimately up to Yahoo, but with concerns over the legality of a partnership, or rather if the partnership will be held up by regulators, may slow down such a decision.
One should never underestimate Yahoo’s ability to mess up a profitable deal for it’s shareholders!
I don’t know what is taking them so long. We all know that eventually they will have to combine forces in order to be a real threat to Google. Lets just get on with it already.
I am not sure but I have this weird feeling that to start with google might benefit form the deal as well. Say ‘x’ number of users use yahoo because they don’t like google of microsoft. Now that google merges with microsoft those who have a lesser liking for microsoft will then switch over to google. So we can safely assume some % of ‘x’ will move over to google. Any ideas?
I hope so. Google is just way too powerful. We need a stronger competitor asap.
I agree with Bob: Google needs some serious competition to keep it in check. We also need a fresh horizon in search.
Competition is always a good thing. The more important thing is a quality product ie. SE integrity.
Google is no doubt the number 1 search engine in the world today. Because of this Yahoo and MSN have tried their best to beat the Big G for several years. And now, their solution is merger. There will be a big impact but I guess they will need more efforts because I think their combined market share is still less than Google’s.