Yahoo

Note: Here's the text of the e-mail Steve Ballmer sent to Microsoft employees on Friday, following its $44.6 billion bid to buy Yahoo.

Subject line: Proposed Acquisition of Yahoo!

Today, I am very excited to announce that Microsoft has made a proposal to acquire Yahoo. This announcement represents a big opportunity for Microsoft, and is the next major milestone in our companywide transformation to embrace online services, search, and advertising.

By combining the strengths of our companies, we can deliver an efficient and highly competitive offering for our customers. Our complementary assets will give us increased talent and … Read more

Just about everyone else on the Internet has written on the potential acquisition of Yahoo by Microsoft for $44.6 billion, but I thought that I would weigh in on what I think this might mean for search and Web services.

According to ComScore's search share numbers for December 2007, Google has 58.4 percent of the market share, with Yahoo and Microsoft trailing at 22.9 percent and 9.8 percent, respectively. If Microsoft and Yahoo combine forces and change nothing, that will put them at 32.7 percent to Google's 58.4 percent. While those numbers … Read more

Note: I wrote this on Thursday before Microsoft's latest bid for Yahoo; it's a follow-up to a post I wrote six months ago. I have two comments on Microsoft's offer: 1) It's aggressive and it's a sweetheart deal for Yahoo's shareholders; I think Yahoo's board will accept it; and 2) nevertheless, the issues I present are the same; it just becomes Microsoft's problem.

It's been seven months or so since Yahoo chief and co-founder Jerry Yang replaced Terry Semel at the helm of the ailing internet giant. At the time, I pondered the obvious question: Can Yang fix Yahoo?

For the record, I thought the board acted rashly in appointing Yang--a relatively inexperienced executive--to perform what would clearly be a challenging turnaround. I didn't think he had the experience to pull it off.

At the time, I thought that Yang--a visionary--wasn't what Yahoo needed. I thought Yahoo's problem was largely failed execution and missed opportunities in search advertising that allowed Google to leapfrog its more mature rival.

At this point, I'm even more convinced that Yang was the wrong choice. But I think the problem is bigger than missed opportunity and failed execution. The company does indeed need a new vision. And it needs a CEO who's capable of articulating and selling that vision down through the ranks and ensuring everybody's goals are aligned.

That's a tall order, but it can be done. Lou Gerstner did it at IBM, and that was no walk in the park. But Jerry Yang is no Lou Gerstner.… Read more

Microsoft's proposed $44.6 billion purchase of Yahoo could subject the software giant to the kind of critical antitrust scrutiny from Washington it hasn't experienced in nearly a decade.

There are plenty of obstacles -- including what Yahoo shareholders and board members think of the deal -- to overcome before the federal government gets involved. But there are already signs that any review will be intense.

"We will need to scrutinize the deal carefully to insure that it will not cause any harm to the competitiveness of what has been a vibrant high tech marketplace, nor negatively … Read more

It has only taken three years for Google to unseat Yahoo in search, become the online ad king, and get so big it prompts Microsoft to try to buy Yahoo.

Microsoft announced on Friday it has made an offer to acquire Yahoo for $44.6 billion. The news comes days after Yahoo said it would lay off 1,000 workers, saw its fourth-quarter profit fall, and gave lukewarm guidance for the current quarter. By comparison, Google on Thursday posted fourth-quarter revenue of $4.8 billion, up more than 50 percent, while profit rose 17 percent.

Google has been able to … Read more

In a move that came as a surprise to no one expect those living under a rock, Microsoft bid $44.6 billion for Yahoo.

According to Steve Ballmer, "Today, the market is increasingly dominated by one player who is consolidating its dominance through acquisition. Together, Microsoft and Yahoo! can offer a credible alternative for consumers, advertisers, and publishers."

And while Ballmer stopped short of mentioning Google by name, this one statement highlights an important element of Microsoft's strategy. As I've mentioned before, Ballmer and company are focused on Google more than any other company and this deal with Yahoo may finally give it the leverage the company needs to capture greater influence online.

But I digress. Today, the real story surrounding the possible Yahoo acquisition has nothing to do with Google at all. Instead, today's announcement surrounds the absolute need for Yahoo to accept this acquisition to save itself.

Of course, the only problem is, nobody knows if it will.… Read more

From rainy New York City--today we talk about how the new Hobbit movies won't suck because Guillermo del Toro will be behind the camera, this weekend's movies, reactions from last night's Lost premiere, and the whole Microsoft and Yahoo! merger thingie. Plus, we'll recall TV shows we miss and the time when MTV wasn't awful.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

It's clear that Yahoo is struggling against Google, and it's clear that Microsoft wants nothing more than to be important in the online services world. But the combination of these two behemoths, neither of whom have been particularly innovative with technology or customer acquisition of late, is the next AOL/Time Warner debacle.

Does anyone think that the merger of AOL and Time Warner was a success? Does the marriage of two companies that have no clear strategies ever make sense?

Microsoft hasn't proven that it can take advantage of this scale of web property and has wasted a huge amount of time and dollars with all the Live.com junk. Yes, MS should move into new markets and look to the future but Yahoo is a massive undertaking with a completely different culture. … Read more