A lot has happened, or threatened to happen, since yesterday, surrounding Yahoo's potential merger(s) and its successful attempt to appear as the most-courted damsel on the Internet.
Here's a brief, bulleted rundown for all the list-lovers out there:
Google/Yahoo: Yahoo announced yesterday a temporary partnership with Google. This entails a two-week trial period during which Yahoo will carry Google AdSense ads. According to The Wall Street Journal, this is "part of a test that is designed to evaluate the revenue potential of a broader outsourcing arrangement." An arrangement, that is, which would destroy any idea of competition on the Web and drive regulators wild.
News Corp./Microsoft/Yahoo: The New York Times reported today that News Corp. may hop in bed (scandal!) with Microsoft in its bid for Yahoo. This ménage would create a combined monster out of Yahoo, Microsoft's MSN, and News Corps.' MySpace.
AOL/Yahoo: The Wall Street Journal reported today that, as some suspected, Yahoo and AOL "are closing in on a deal to combine their Internet operations" in an attempt to thwart the Microsoft bid. Basically, through this partnership, Time Warner would fold its unwanted AOL into Yahoo through a cash investment. In return, it would own 20 percent of the new company. Interesting deal. But doesn't this kind of sound like selling your three-legged dog to a homeless guy? Just sayin'.
There's been some friendly banter taking place on the Internet Evolution message boards this week over whether or not Google is a monopoly at all, after our poll results declared it the "most dominant" monopoly of the current Internet age.
Regardless of your opinion on that (or mine, for that matter), one thing is for certain: Competition is never a bad thing, and a viable Google competitor could only benefit us citizens of the Web (Netizens, if you will).
By (a) teaming up with the sinking ship that is AOL; or (b) forming some sort of alliance with Google -- Yahoo is bailing on those of us who had hoped it would at least put up a good fight against Google in the ad/search space online, and perhaps give us another option for once on the Google-dominated Web.
But, in addition to Web users, Yahoo may be spiting itself as well. If it does reject Microsoft in favor of flirting with its other suitors, and those alliances take the company for a nosedive, Microsoft -- its only saving grace at that point -- could justifiably swoop in with a lower bid. And then, what's a girl to do?
People are needed to get things moving. Being a CEO myself, has me dealing with frustrations and innovations at the same time. Million dollar moves are just that.
Personally I do not think that Google should buy Yahoo or mege it. I think that Google is doing good ( if not very good) in web search and web ad domain.
The folks at Google would have to estimate the risk Microsoft + Yahoo poses to them.
And I do not think that this alliance would pose big risk to Google's "monopoly" in web space.
In any case, Google may not want Microsoft to buy Yahoo but it would not want to buy Yahoo ( My opinion)
Why all the love-fest between Google and Yahoo just after the Microsoft's bid? When i read your post i just start wondering if there is some hidden agenda unknowing to the majority of the public. Whilst the popular consensus is that Google is obstructing the deal, there are conspiracy theories making the rounds that both Google and Yahoo are up to something and it is: Google actually wants the deal to take place as it will benefits and Yahoo obviuosly wanted MSFT to increase the bid price. So this new friendship is to provoke MSFT to raise its bid:
I heard last year that the company was undergoing major
internal reorganization. Consequently, they are going through some shaky
times but, they still have an immense number of users that spans across the
globe.
Tim, I'm with you. This is all starting to feel very Jerry Springer-esque. I think Yahoo is currently in the process of making itself a few enemies both outside and inside its organization.
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The Wall Street Journal reports that the National Security Agency (NSA) has been working with Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) to look into the attacks on its Chinese servers.
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What can users today do to protect their online privacy? The simplest and most obvious option is to not use the Internet – at all. However, once all digital information is consolidated over the Internet, trying to protect digital identity by simply unplugging from the Internet becomes impossible – a fact that has manifest implications for civil liberties, Saunders says.
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Saunders is wrong on Hulu, Fritz thinks. By most measures it's been
a success, and there's no reason this model won't become even bigger in the next three years. Oh, and he hates Steve's hat.
YouTube launches 'YouTube Direct' to give 'citizen' journalism a better platform and in so doing may just ensure that 'quality' journalism soon becomes a thing of the past.
The problem with telepresence is that it's not universally accepted, because video calling isn't. While we can all do video calling, we also apparently worry too much about how we look. If we want HD telepresence in our future, we have to dress down, mess up our hair, and dive into our online life.
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Research shows that the youth of today like Facebook – but not blogging or Twitter. Does that mean Facebook has won, or just that it's not yet out of favor? Will all the services we see today fade into Ovaltine-or-Wheaties status in just a few years?
What kinds of companies are doing the most innovation in the data center? Turns out it's midtier enterprises that are taking the "Just Right" approach.
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