Microsoft still wants a Yahoo! deal – just not an acquisition
Microsoft never did get its hands on Yahoo!, despite trying for what felt like half of last year. It’s a shame because I always felt Microhoo was a great name for a company. But while an acquisition is now completely off the table, a partnership is most certainly not.
A good portion of 2008 was spent tracking the on/off, friendly then hostile, Microsoft acquisition/takeover of Yahoo. It didn’t happen, but it came mighty close to being a done deal. Microsoft first offered $44.6 billion for the company in February, 2008 before upping the offer to $47.5 billion. It walked away in May but there have been further rumors of acquisition offers and partnership deals ever since.
These don’t seem to be false either, with Microsoft seemingly eager to form some sort of collaborative effort in the future. In an interview with The Times, Kevin Turner, chief operating officer of Microsoft, made it clear that a partnership in the area of search was still on the table.
He said:
They have a new CEO (Carol Bartz), and she’s formulating her business plans. We’ve certainly made her aware and the Yahoo! board aware that if they are ever interested in an opportunity to partner with them on search, we’d like to sit down and at least have the conversation. It has to make economic sense to both parties.
Jerry Yang, the former CEO of Yahoo! finally resigned from the company after a shareholder revolt at the decision not to take Microsoft’s money. With the new CEO now installed, Microsoft is once again making overtures to the company, though this time they are much more toned-down and liable to receive a positive reception.
Microsoft is clearly desperate to start challenging Google in the online search market, and while it’s moving ahead under its own steam and testing a new search service called Kumo, Ballmer and co. know Yahoo! could be a massive help in this area. It would certainly seem to make sense for both companies to work together as between them they still only control around half of the search market total enjoyed by Google.
Bartz is unlikely to be rushed, still sorting through the mess that is Yahoo!, but once that part of her job is done, I suspect she’ll be open to discussion… on her terms.
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