Yahoo May Re-Consider Google Alliance, Rebuff Microsoft

anastasd writes "Reuters is reporting that Yahoo might consider a business alliance with Google as a way to top a $44.6 billion takeover proposal by Microsoft. 'Yahoo management is considering revisiting talks it held with Google several months ago on an alliance as an alternative to Microsoft's bid, that source said. At $31 a share, Yahoo believes the bid undervalues the company, two sources said. A second source close to Yahoo said it had received a procession of preliminary contacts by media, technology, telephone and financial companies. But the source said they were unaware whether any alternative bid was in the offing.'"

Comments

Yahoo is popular outside of the US

[kylehase]

Here in Japan Yahoo is huge. Yahoo is the default portal for many Japanese on their computer and mobile browsers, in fact all Softbank (formerly Vodafone in Japan) phones don't have an Internet button but instead a Y! button. Unlike Americans who favor simplistic websites with lots of space for easy readability, Japanese tend to like cluttered pages with noisy interfaces. Perhaps it reminds them of the crowded streets and electronic billboards in Shibuya.

Yahoo is also an ISP in Japan with a rather large penetration.

Re:Yahoo is popular outside of the US

[erwanl]

Yahoo! in Japan is not Yahoo!. It's Softbank paying royalties to Yahoo! to use their brand, logo, and some of their technologies (like IM). That's why they have so many services that Yahoo US doesn't have (ISP, a leading auctions website...) Softbank bought the Japanese branch of Vodaphone (formely J-Phone, before Vodaphone bought it and screw it up). It's not a suprise that Softbank phone have a Y! button: it's the same company! Also, that's why there is no Japanese version of Flickr: because of their contract with Softbank, Yahoo! isn't allowed to release any product in Japanese.

Check your stats

[EmbeddedJanitor]

http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details/yahoo.com

Google and yahoo are neck and neck (with google slightly ahead for the last while). That gives google 1 & 3, or 50% vs 30% if you combine youtube + google.

Now look at http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=YHOO&t=2y&l=on&z=m&q=l&c=GOOG

Yahoo on the way down and Google (relatively) up.

Sure, Google could buy Yahoo for a quick rush, but in the longer term (1-2 years) yahoo will just fade by themselves unless they do something very interesting (which they have not done in a long time).