Rarely has a struggling business seemed so nakedly up for grabs as Yahoo. Predators have been smelling blood in the water for months now and are moving in for the kill.
But it seems poor Yahoo can't do things right, even when it comes to selling itself.
In a surprise move, Yahoo has imposed -- or attempted to impose -- irksome nondisclosure conditions on bidders for the company. In simple terms, this means that, in order to get access to the confidential financial information it needs to see before making an offer, potential bidders must sign papers forfeiting the right to coordinate a bid with other interested parties.
The immediate result seems to have been the disengagement of several private equity firms that might have mounted a joint bid for the business. It had been reported, for example, that private equity firm Silver Lake was looking to join with Alibaba and other parties in a consortium to acquire the company. Jack Ma of Alibaba has repeatedly expressed an interest in buying his American partner, and it seems possible that the Chinese Internet group might consider a solo bid.
Microsoft is also showing interest in picking over Yahoo's bones, although it is unclear, given the nondisclosure restrictions, how Redmond could play a role in supplying finance in a joint bid with other partners. Microsoft's acquisition of Yahoo would, among other things, help it to leverage its Bing search engine toward profitability.
Talk of a reverse merger between AOL and Yahoo has repeatedly been greeted with skepticism. Although it's hard to doubt that Tim Armstrong, AOL's CEO, has been floating the idea, few see value in tying together two companies with more than their fair shares of bad ideas, inept strategies, and weak results.
Indeed, the only good news Yahoo could point to recently was a set of third quarter results that although bad -- profits down 26 percent -- were not actually as catastrophic as everyone had expected. This followed the acrimonious firing of Carol Bartz, Yahoo's third CEO in six years, and fierce criticism by investors of the company's hapless and seemingly ineffectual board.
Given the quantity of information about Yahoo in the public domain, it seems possible that a Microsoft-funded consortium could get most of their ducks in a row for a bid before signing the restrictive agreements that would prevent further discussion among the bidding partners. Only then, of course, would they finally get to see confidential financial records. Last minute bumps in the road can't be ruled out.
While it's evident that business-as-usual is no longer an option for one of the Internet's pioneering search and Web portal enterprises, don't underestimate Yahoo's ability to mismanage its own demise.
Yahoo has a heck of a brand and while mismanagement might be one dart to throw, it would seem they could market themselves using the decades old name.
Why not Yahoo brand bread, clothing, pizza, and whatever else they could plant the Yahoo name on. The band Kiss has done a bang up job with branding everything under the sun, even Kiss coffins (well, actually beer coolers in the form of a coffin).
I look forward to seeing the Yahoo brand at Walmart.
Thanks for all the comments. I wonder if Microsoft is the most likely buyer? It looks like they don't want to run Yahoo, but are willing to help finance a joint bid. As of today, Alibaba seems to be in the lead, although I really wonder if a Japanese ecommerce company really has any idea what it's going to do with a content/search portal.
Kim,don't you think that it's a little bit personal thing for Microsoft?They have once tried to buy Yahoo and it was an epic fail. So, now they have to finish their work and just get the toy.They might not need it, but they definitely want it
Kim it is indeed preplexing how a company so promising could come down like deck of cards.The trouble is that the company is so rudderless its even confusing its prospective buyers acording to Yahoo's co-founder Jerry Yang the company has more options then just sale http://www.yourmoneysite.com/news/2011/oct/yahoo-has-more-options-than-sale-of-company.html
Hoo boy their board members sure are difficult
I feel the same way you do, Mary. By the way, Ross Levinsohn, EVP of Yahoo, spoke at the Web 2.0 Summit this week, and he couldn't have been less interesting to listen to. He basically gushed about some concert Yahoo did with the Bill Clinton Foundation and U2 and seemed perplexed that anyone could think Yahoo was in a bad position.
As for Micro-Hoo, well, the words "we all go down together" comes to mind. Hoo boy.
Why does this situation annoy me so much? I think it's because it's further evidence that companies we think of as powerful and staffed by competent business geniuses sometimes seem less knowledgeable than the guy at the corner store.
Hopefully, a deal will be brokered in spite of Yahoo.
The ThinkerNet does not reflect the views of TechWeb. The ThinkerNet is an informal means of communication to members and visitors of the Internet Evolution site. Individual authors are chosen by Internet Evolution to blog. Neither Internet Evolution nor TechWeb assume responsibility for comments, claims, or opinions made by authors and ThinkerNet bloggers. They are no substitute for your own research and should not be relied upon for trading or any other purpose.
The Memorial Day weekend begins with Geek Pride Day on Saturday. Kick off your holiday with nine news tidbits that are perfect for sharing at backyard BBQs and poolside get-togethers.
At the IBM Smarter Commerce Global Summit here in Nashville, I'm hearing many stories about how businesses have adapted their IT strategies in response to this rapidly changing, pressurized, data-driven commercial world.
Neal Stephenson is best known as the author of science fiction novels such as SnowCrash and Anathem. But he does other things as well. Among them: He's assembled a team of scientists and engineers to figure out how to build a 20-kilometer-tall tower to use as a platform for launching rockets into space.
While interstellar travel presents huge challenges, it's "almost inevitable," according to a speaker at the Starship Century symposium here in San Diego.
Yahoo's new CEO can't go back to what Yahoo was; that's how it got to what it is! Instead she has to look at something that Yahoo has always rejected, which is a relationship with the telcos and cablecos. They'd love a partner in creating service applications.
Based on reactions in Nicole's Newsfeed, everyone hates this version of Facebook. This should matter to Facebook now that there's a real competitor on the scene named Google+.
Allowing users to share music and video on Facebook might sound like good news, but is this part of a coherent strategy, or is Facebook just stumbling from idea to idea?
New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority is conducting a pilot test of digital kiosks to guide subway users to where they want to go more efficiently and at lower cost.
The whole Amazon.reader debate is a double-stupid. It's stupid to think that there's any e-book buyer who doesn't know Amazon's URL, and it was stupider to let ICANN launch the whole free-form TLD initiative to start with.
While NFC's original goal was to enhance mobile commerce applications, it is finding its way into a number of other uses, which is creating both opportunity as well as challenges for IT departments.
Enterprises would like to move to cloud computing but are hesitant because they are concerned about providers’ ability to secure company data. Here are some tips that help to ensure that if breaches occur, the business is not left holding the bag.
Edmunds separates customers into segments based on the info it collects on its site and from partners, and uses that to push out custom content, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
The automotive website uses propensity modeling to target ads and customer registration forms, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
Expert Integrated Systems: Changing the Experience & Economics of IT In this e-book, we take an in-depth look at these expert integrated systems -- what they are, how they work, and how they have the potential to help CIOs achieve dramatic savings while restoring IT's role as business innovator. READ THIS eBOOK
your weekly update of news, analysis, and
opinion from Internet Evolution - FREE! REGISTER HERE
Wanted! Site Moderators Internet Evolution is looking for a handful of readers to help moderate the message boards on our site – as well as engaging in high-IQ conversation with the industry mavens on our thinkerNet blogosphere. The job comes with various perks, bags of kudos, and GIANT bragging rights. Interested?
To save this item to your list of favorite Internet Evolution content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
M2M: Rise of the Machines? Not Yet David Weldon In the 1970 science fiction thriller Colossus: The Forbin Project, two giant supercomputers from the United States and Soviet Union secretly join forces to take control of the collective nuclear might of the two countries. In the film, the two machines discover each other's existence, communicate back-and-forth, share their collective data, and cut their human creators out of the process. It is the ultimate example of machine-to-machine communications, or M2M. CLICK FOR MORE
M2M: Rise of the Machines? Not Yet David Weldon In the 1970 science fiction thriller Colossus: The Forbin Project, two giant supercomputers from the United States and Soviet Union secretly join forces to take control of the collective nuclear might of the two countries. In the film, the two machines discover each other's existence, communicate back-and-forth, share their collective data, and cut their human creators out of the process. It is the ultimate example of machine-to-machine communications, or M2M. CLICK FOR MORE
Email This
