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Google will derail the Microsoft-Yahoo deal

cnet.com — Over the past few months, we've been inundated with constant stories about the future of Yahoo. Will it be gobbled up Microsoft? Will Yahoo get away? For quite a while, no one was quite sure. But after seeing what's going on with Google and the deal it may be a matter of time before Microsoft is out of the picture.

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  • pauled, on 04/19/2008, -17/+10no it won't...
    • rnolds, on 04/19/2008, -10/+17...it's worth hoping for no? Consumers will surely loose out from the loss in competition if bully boy Microsoft succeeds.
      • SkinBintin, on 04/19/2008, -10/+14And Google getting their hands on Yahoo! won't result in the same thing? All mega corporations are as bad as each other. "Don't be evil" my ass!
        • niceyuk, on 04/19/2008, -4/+7No, it wouldn't result in the same thing as Google and Yahoo would only be partnering for advertising revenue. Microsoft would be taking over Yahoo and the Yahoo brand would likely disappear in time, resulting in less competition, so there would be a BIG difference.
        • cowsgonemadd3, on 04/19/2008, -3/+1You own a donkey? How cool!
      • SSUK, on 04/19/2008, -2/+8Microsoft will buy Yahoo! for the ad platform. Not to go in and start Microsoft-style business ethics. Everyone who actually does stuff at Yahoo will be left as they are, only the people who fund/own it will change. It was the same when Google took over YouTube, they bought the ad platform, leaving how the site operates intact. You're foolish to believe that Microsoft would want to alienate the consumers they bought the platform to profit off.
      • MortalynFlux, on 04/19/2008, -5/+5You didn't read the article. Yahoo! wants to sell Google's ads, not to be bought out by Google. They are hoping this will increase the value of the company so that more companies, specifically Time Warner/AOL, will take interest in buying it, thereby increasing the purchase price.

        The problem with Microsoft buying Yahoo is that Microsoft will migrate all of Yahoo!'s servers from FreeBSD to Microsoft servers. That would mean high employee turnover at the engineering level The arrogant Microsoft culture would eventually swallow the Yahoo! culture until eventually there is no Yahoo! They might even change the logo. To MSN with a little Yahoo! underneath. Then it will start looking like MSN. Then there will be no Yahoo!

        Time Warner would not care what servers Yahoo! is running, and would pretty much let Yahoo! keep most of its identity. It will become more of a horizontal merger that would give TimeWarner greater tools for placing advertisements in its content. This is probably the type of deal TimeWarner was looking for when it merged with AOL, but we all know how that went.
        • deanlowe, on 04/19/2008, -1/+2So what software Yahoo runs on is more important than Google controlling 90% of the online ad market??

          Priorities, dude.
          • MortalynFlux, on 04/19/2008, -0/+1It is for Yahoo!, who would have to undergo the logistical nightmare of needlessly migrating thousands of servers.

            As for me, I don't really care. My priorities are going to work and going to school. Corporate mergers or IT companies' stock do not affect my life in any major way. I'm merely explaining the issue from Yahoo!'s perspective, as the article is written, as to why they would want to sell Google's ads. It seems some most people didn't read the article and are repeatedly saying that Google is trying to buy Yahoo!, which is not what the article is saying at all.
        • LightSpeed4, on 04/19/2008, -2/+1deanlowe, these google fanboys will go to great lengths to come up with the ***** arguments ive ever heard of.
      • WomensUnderwear, on 04/19/2008, -2/+1lose
      • vincentweber, on 04/19/2008, -0/+0Consumers?! Do I pay money for using Google? The only customers are companies placing adds.
  • souljaboytellem, on 04/19/2008, -8/+19Highly doubtful
    • LightSpeed4, on 04/19/2008, -4/+4Agreed. plus, yahoo-google deal is A TOTAL BLUFF. ITS A LAST RESORT. This could never really happen because of huge anti-trust issues with such a partnership. It's just another pathetic ploy to get MS to up its price. Despite the fact that most people will lose more money that way. Did Yahoo not rip people off enough when Semel was around? Thirty-some billion in losses to their stockholders while the CEO made more millions than any other. Gotta milk every penny they can out of people before admitting they don't really know how to run a company.

      Now they would rather shoot themselves in the foot by hooking up with their number one competition out of childish spite, and to line their pockets a little more. Hope MS completely dismantles them after finally getting through the song and dances Yahoo keeps pulling.
  • Shadowgamers, on 04/19/2008, -7/+8I like stalling for time too. Doesn't get me anywhere and ends up with me in more ***** than usual though...
  • Picer, on 04/19/2008, -20/+6It looks like Google is doing the "Evil" for once.
    • vincentweber, on 04/19/2008, -2/+1Evil? Is preventing that another company is getting sucked up by Ms bad? Hell Yahoo! donates money to FreeBSD. Guess what happens when that stops and Yahoo! doesn' t use FreeBSD servers anymore but let their servers run on Windows server? Indeed: everything will start to be ***** slow and have 0.01 percent downtime per year. Shut up you stupid Winsux fanboy with zero computer knowledge.
  • frogstik, on 04/19/2008, -9/+4wow you guys are like the Internet experts... I'm gonna quit going online now.
    • e68895f, on 04/19/2008, -0/+4"I'm gonna quit going online now."
      internet experts all support your decision.
    • neko, on 04/20/2008, -0/+2Bye.
  • Coniferous, on 04/19/2008, -4/+2While it would be quite amusing to have google buy yahoo and ***** block Microsoft, I just don't see the sense in it. They already have the best internet advertising, and I seriously doubt any of yahoos assets will help them with their growth.
    • FutureGuy, on 04/19/2008, -2/+3Yes it would be so awesome, Google=Internet. Oh pissed off Google, I have no internet. Google wants @#@$ per click for my ads, what other options do I have, I don't that's so great. I don't find that amusing sry.
  • minastirth, on 04/19/2008, -2/+11The rise of Google stock will indeed cause problems. It is quite likely that Yahoo stock will go up after their Q1 report. This would mean Microsoft will have to shell out more if they want Yahoo. Also Yahoo stock going up will increase the faith of their shareholders.
  • tcpip4lyfe, on 04/19/2008, -5/+7If they do take over Yahoo they better leave Zimbra the ***** alone.
    • WarezAppz, on 04/19/2008, -11/+3Or what?! You'll cry?


      Need a binky, a bottle or just burped?!!!
      • tcpip4lyfe, on 04/19/2008, -0/+4No I'll probably just switch mail servers. Ass.
  • eclipse007, on 04/19/2008, -2/+23"And if you ask me, when the deal is reached, Microsoft will be forced to back off."

    Wrong!

    Yahoo has only two options to avoid a MS takeover:

    1- Sell to another company - Google is left out because of monopoly issues. Nobody else has come forward with an offer better than MS.

    2- Convince shareholders that Yahoo! is going to somehow grow its value and market share. They constantly failed at that one for almost a decade.
    • kahrytan, on 04/19/2008, -9/+6If Google is out then Microsoft would be out over monopoly issues too.
      • niceyuk, on 04/19/2008, -1/+4Yep, they would have an almost total monopoly on Instant Messengers, something they are keen to keep quiet about.
      • LightSpeed4, on 04/19/2008, -2/+2You are obviously misinformed, over the past 2 months there have been dozens of articles explaining in detail why ms would easily pass regulatory anti-trust committees.
    • ofathens, on 04/19/2008, -1/+7Eclipse, you're absolutely right, and that's something that seems to be left out of the discussion every time I read about this. It's Google who would be acquiring the monopoly, and not Microsoft. Kahrytan, the industry is search engines, and when it comes to that, Microsoft is hardly a player at all (other than their inflated numbers since they set the default on IE to be msn search). If Google, the largest search engine, were to take over Yahoo, the second largest, then that, my friends, would be a real monopoly. As per MS, "this would make the market far less competitive, in sharp contrast to our own proposal to acquire Yahoo."
      Why is MS being painted as the big bad wolf in this one, and Google the good guy? If anything, it's the other way around.
      • philhatesyou, on 04/19/2008, -3/+1Wrong. The industry is computing in general. Microsoft getting it's dirty ***** fingers into yet another aspect of computing is bad for everyone except Microsoft. Also, acquiring Yahoo would not give Google a monopoly. It would give them massive market share, but high market share doesn't necessarily equate to a monopoly. For a monopoly, you need for there to be unreasonable barriers to entry of the market. These simply wouldn't exist with a search engine. People don't go to the search engine because of the paid results. All a potential competitor would have to do is make a better search engine than Google, and the customer base would follow.
      • DarkShroud, on 04/21/2008, -0/+1I agree with you on most poits except that part about default search. Opera, Safari and all Mozilla bowsers have Google set as the default. And when you upgrade to IE7 & IE8 is asked if you want to keep the same search as before.
    • anshuman, on 04/19/2008, -1/+1actually, yahoo should simply sell out their AD service branch and then ask MS to buy rest of junk which is useless to MS :D
  • JerzyBricklayr, on 04/19/2008, -5/+11GooHoo?
  • mal1964, on 04/19/2008, -2/+6Posturing & Positioning
  • anagoge, on 04/19/2008, -2/+1Just out of interest, what companies do Yahoo own? Besides Flickr, I'm not really accquainted with their portfolio.
  • SkinBintin, on 04/19/2008, -11/+6I can't stand Google. All that "Don't be evil" rubbish is nothing more than grandstanding!
    • vincentweber, on 04/19/2008, -1/+0Ms is the root of all evil. Period. Microsoft destroyed software ever since DOS. Kthnxbye.
  • kahrytan, on 04/19/2008, -4/+9Yahoo is basically making itself worth more by striking a deal with Google. This helps keep Micro$oft's dirty little hands off Flickr and Y! Answers.
    • theblacknight, on 04/19/2008, -0/+2I'm waiting to see where this Yahoo/Micro$soft deal goes before I decide whether or not I'm going with Flickr.
    • LightSpeed4, on 04/19/2008, -1/+2Everyone hates Microsoft and Windows yet 90% of people use them. Microsoft makes good products. Im happy with my xbox and vista laptop. You people that hate Microsoft.....You try to create something as massive as an operating System without maybe a few bugs in it. Not to mention all the companies that dont update their drivers in time. Another thing too is that every loser hacker in the world is trying to knock Micro down. Its a tough thing. You try to build one.
      • kahrytan, on 04/20/2008, -1/+1Actually, it's less then 90%. You have to account for Mac Users and Linux users. (the larger of the os groups)
      • Biznarie, on 04/20/2008, -1/+1Lightspeed, If you haven't heard "the people" who hate Microsoft have created an OS its called Linux.
    • JQP123, on 04/19/2008, -0/+1"Yahoo is basically making itself worth more by striking a deal with Google."

      Yahoo isn't really worth more; it's just that Google is going to basically give them some revenue to make them *appear* they're worth more, just to thwart MS. Google may not continue this "deal" indefinitely. The real losers in this game are likely to be the Yahoo shareholders.
  • over900000, on 04/19/2008, -12/+8Google sucks. We need competition. Google doesn't want competition. Monopolistic behavior.
    • theblacknight, on 04/19/2008, -1/+1Actually, Google is trying to keep the #2 search engine alive in order to prevent a tripoly from becoming a duopoly.
      • LightSpeed4, on 04/19/2008, -0/+1tripoly? Do you mean oligarchy? and next, do you honestly think msn/live is in an oligarchy?
  • the3rror, on 04/19/2008, -2/+0What, no +30 comments yet.

    I was hopping for a lmao moment.
  • kenvsryu, on 04/19/2008, -5/+3Haahha it'll be funny if Microsoft vistas yahoo.
    • dr3d, on 04/19/2008, -0/+4what ??
      • vincentweber, on 04/19/2008, -0/+0What do you think? Vitsa = horizon. Move Yahoo! away from sight? 1+1... duh...
  • ma5t3rw1tt, on 04/19/2008, -7/+4Google deserves this company more than Microsoft anyway. Microsoft has a history of monopoly, and this would be just another example of how it would do it again. Google has brought many inovations to the net and all their products, and Microsoft is always rushing things out. Google deserves a Yahoo deal, and Microsoft don't.
    • dr3d, on 04/19/2008, -2/+4Google *deserves* Yahoo? .. You mean Google has *bought* many innovations, right? And not rushing means everything's always labelled "beta".
      • vincentweber, on 04/19/2008, -1/+0Really? What did they buy? That's right => nothing. (this was meant for dr3d)
    • mal1964, on 04/19/2008, -1/+2"deserves"+ Less Money = "deserves"

  • smacksaw, on 04/19/2008, -3/+5That's a pretty interesting poison pill. The author is right. The writing is on the wall. With Yahoo flush with cash, Microsoft is not going to be putting in an offer that is a bargain, eliminating the entire reason they wanted Yahoo to begin with.

    Yahoo and Google make sense since they have been partners in the past. I think it's clear that by adding value to Yahoo by having it share services and (I hate to use this word) synergies, it raises the value of both Yahoo and Google. And not just the stock price, but as the author said, a vehicle for someone like Time Warner. They wanted AOL because it complimented their business. Imagine how Yahoo would compliment Time Warner's business. Then imagine that they get it, and it has all of this Google-related infrastructure already in place.

    That's the value. It's not the value of the stock, but the value of what Yahoo can now do, which is deliver ads along with Google. Time Warner has a lot of things they'd like to advertise. They deal with advertisers on their media platforms.

    Imagine you sell widgets. Now Time Warner can put your product in print, on TBS AND on Yahoo and other internet sites. You can run a complete multimedia campaign. What's the point of Microsoft running Yahoo's ads? To protect their ad sales? Who ***** cares. This isn't about perpetuating Microsoft, it's about streamlining business with technology.
  • netsnake24, on 04/19/2008, -8/+4I will see yahoo, google and apple together... ^^
    microsoft sucks!
    • vincentweber, on 04/19/2008, -0/+0Last time I checked Google was still on the Linux side.
      • Biznarie, on 04/20/2008, -0/+0I believe they are, if i heard right they have their own internal OS based off Ubuntu called Goobuntu. Plus they contribute to WINE all the time.
  • jschwanz, on 04/19/2008, -2/+1There are previous examples of the stronger of two competitors helping out the weaker. The biggest example of this was Microsoft's help to Apple in the 90s . Look at where that help has led to today.
  • whiteguysamurai, on 04/19/2008, -2/+5Google is evil in ways people aren't aware of.
    Turning over information to the chinese government, yeah google does that.
    Whomever gets their hands on yahoo, we all lose.
    • vincentweber, on 04/19/2008, -2/+0That was Yahoo!...
      • DarkShroud, on 04/21/2008, -0/+2Google has done it as well. MS just negotiated on the front end to block items selected by China from Live search but it keep China out of MS's business.
  • Malarie, on 04/19/2008, -5/+3Anyways, Google will win.
    All the best Y! engineers will end up sending resumes to Google.
    Microsoft is dead. Not because they suck at winning but because they are paying for what they did in the past. The whole industry is waiting for MS to fall so innovation can sky rocket. MS are attacked from everywhere. Ubuntu, Apple, Yahoo, Google Mozilla etc..
    With Windows Vista being ignored by most companies.. Their cash cow is getting thinner and thinner.. At last they are being Microsoft'ed and thats in their face. In french we say: "Quand tu craches dans les airs, ca te retombe à la figure": When you spit in the air, you always get your spit back in the face.
    This deal wont affect Google.
    • IFEice, on 04/19/2008, -1/+3Sigh, Do I really need to give you links to Vista's sales? If you want to make an argument, then at least make one that is valid.
      "MS are attacked from everywhere" I had to laugh at that comment. Every company is attacked by every other company in the same market, just like Sony being attacking by LG, Samsung and whatnot.

      OH wait, never mind I understand, you're French...
      • Biznarie, on 04/20/2008, -1/+0You're an idiot, I hope you die slowly and painfully :)
    • rickcarson, on 04/20/2008, -0/+2"All the best Y! engineers will end up sending resumes to Google."

      That may be true, but all the average engineers and crappy engineers will _also_ send their resumes to Google. Then what will happen is Google will throw out anyone who doesn't have a PhD. What you think happens next will depend on how much of a correlation there is between having a PhD and being a 'best engineer'.

      "Microsoft is dead."

      Rubbish. Neither Vista, nor the Internet, nor Netscape, nor the million plus Windows viruses, have managed to put a stake in the heart of that undead monster. People are always touting the next 'Microsoft Killer', because they predict that if Microsoft maintains its current trajectory/policy for the next 5-15 years that they will become obsolete (or worse). But they forget that Microsoft has in the past shown the ability to change. Microsoft is a _moving_ target, not a static one. They are the doppleganger, not the gazebo.
  • leamanc, on 04/19/2008, -2/+1Pure BS speculation. Monkey Boy will have his Yahoo.
  • LightSpeed4, on 04/19/2008, -2/+1yahoo-google deal is A TOTAL BLUFF. ITS A LAST RESORT. This could never really happen because of huge anti-trust issues with such a partnership. It's just another pathetic ploy to get MS to up its price. Despite the fact that most people will lose more money that way. Did Yahoo not rip people off enough when Semel was around? Thirty-some billion in losses to their stockholders while the CEO made more millions than any other. Gotta milk every penny they can out of people before admitting they don't really know how to run a company. Now they would rather shoot themselves in the foot by hooking up with their number one competition out of childish spite, and to line their pockets a little more. Hope MS completely dismantles them after finally getting through the song and dances Yahoo keeps pulling.
    • vincentweber, on 04/19/2008, -0/+0Ms can't raise the price because they even have to lend money for the deal.
  • binaryloop, on 04/19/2008, -1/+3I hope Google does derail it. If not, I'm canceling the Yahoo account I've had since 1996, and my Premium Flickr account. I refuse to support Microsoft or their products.
  • OddTSi, on 04/19/2008, -0/+1While Google and Yahoo may both want this deal to happen, they don't have the ultimate say in whether it does happen or not. There will be tons of antitrust hearings covering this deal if they attempt it. I would be highly surprised if it's allowed to happen.
  • YodaJones, on 04/19/2008, -0/+1This whole story is insane. Has anyone actually looked at Yahoo? Yahoo has nothing interesting to anybody. Who actually uses Yahoo for anything other than perhaps their IM? Oooh, they have free email? Like that's special. Come on people. Let's look at some more interesting new businesses than these old relics.
    • vincentweber, on 04/19/2008, -0/+1Yahoo! messenger is used by a _lot_ of people.
  • eminiguy, on 04/20/2008, -0/+1MS rejected again? Old news, my friends, old news. I have been saying that Yahoo is not for sale ever since the MS wackos came up with that idea and I will be here when the deal is officially off.

    Just to revel in pointing out what a bunch of dopes you are. Just for that.

    BWAHAHAHA. BWAHAHAHA. BWAHAHAHA.
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