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Microsoft/Yahoo Merger to Take on Google?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the thats-probably-what-it-would-take dept.

Mz6 writes "One faction within Microsoft is promoting a bold strategy in the company's battle with Google: Join forces with Yahoo. That would be a major departure for Microsoft, the software maker that is legendary for toiling on its own until it captures a new market. However, people familiar with the situation say that Microsoft has considered the idea of acquiring a stake in Yahoo, and that the two companies have discussed possible options over the course of the past year. Currently, talks of an equity stake in Yahoo don't appear to be active, given that Microsoft is focusing on a reorganization that it hopes will re-energize its effort to compete with Google. Two wild cards remain: Steve Ballmer, who has historically shunned large acquisitions, and Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang, whose support would be key to bringing the necessary Yahoo shareholders on board for a deal. Mr. Yang and others in Yahoo would be hard-pressed to sell to Microsoft, people close to the company say. However, people familiar with Microsoft say its top management remains open to a deal with Yahoo as pressure grows to perform better against Google. The increasing pressure on Microsoft -- not just from Google, but also from its own shareholders, as well as from advertisers that want an alternative to Google -- could help to justify the acquisition or some kind of business collaboration, these people say."

2 of 183 comments (clear)

  1. We need MS Bob 2.0 enabled for Web 2.0... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    We need MS Bob 2.0 enabled for Web 2.0... that would solve all of our problems... and it would look like OSX does now.

  2. Slightly Offtopic -- How desparate is yahoo. by supersnail · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    A few days ago I installed Adobe Acrobat on a windows PC so I could RTFM.

    I was rather surpised to see the "Yahoo" toolbar appear on the IE browser
    next time I fired it up.

    I didnt ask for it, there were no "do you to install?" questions it just appeared. And it was a pig to get rid of.

    It wasn't my PC and I felt guilty about leaving it in a polluted state,
    and I have come to regard anything Yahoo as pollution.

    Isnt there some sort of law against this kind of stuff?

    --
    Old COBOL programmers never die. They just code in C.