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Microsoft and News Corp in Yahoo Bid Talks

Posted by samzenpus on from the you-will-be-assimilated dept.

KingAlanI writes "The New York Times website is reporting that Microsoft is trying another angle in its bid for Yahoo: joining up with another behemoth, Murdoch's News Corporation. This is still very much in the preliminary stage, if anything, but an important development to consider. The idea of Yahoo working with fellow Web giant Google, in a plan to counteract Microsoft's takeover plan, is also discussed."

6 of 91 comments (clear)

  1. Pot, this is Kettle by Ngarrang · · Score: 4, Interesting

    From the article...
    "Microsoft immediately blasted the idea of a search advertising partnership between Yahoo and Google, saying it would be anticompetitive. âoeAny definitive agreement between Yahoo and Google would consolidate over 90 percent of the search advertising market in Googleâ(TM)s hands,â Microsoft said in a statement."

    For some reason, this cry for justice rings empty. Does Microsoft honestly think THEY can make such complaints given their own gregarious behavior?

    --
    Bearded Dragon
  2. But the question is... by bhunachchicken · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Will this actually lure people away from Google? Right now the mentality is quite simply "Google It".

    I'm not sure we'll be hearing "Yahoo! It" or "MSN It" any time soon.

    It probably doesn't help that Google is the default search in Firefox either.

    --
    THE HONOUR OF THE KNIGHTS - CC Licensed Sci-Fi Novel
  3. Re:I have a feeling.. by imstanny · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Why do I have a feeling MSFT is going to come out ahead with this deal As for if this will stand in the EU... that is another question all-together. Actually, if you take the history of all buy-outs, the Net benefit for the firm doing the buying is roughly 0%. Though it's a historical average, where some companies may deviate, the company buying the firm tends to have no benefits in the long run. Even in the recent tech world AMD/ATI, TimeWarner/AOL, EBAY/SKYPE come to mind...
  4. Re:MSFT, Hotmail and Yahoo by westlake · · Score: 1, Interesting
    I personally know many friends switching from Hotmail to something else for pathetic services. I do not have a single contact with Hotmail address today.

    The geek would live a freer, happier, life if he could surrender the delusion that he counts for much in Microsoft's world:

    Here are up-to-date numbers for a single country, Turkey:

    Turkey has a population of about 75 million.
    Of the 300 million MSN users worldwide, 25 million are Turkish.
    Turkey ranks third in using MSN Messenger.
    Turkey ranks first in the world in using video-chat and Windows Live services.
    Turkey ranks fifth in the world with 19 million hotmail user accounts.

    Half the users are below the age of 35, and 65 percent are men. Women users made up around 22 percent some time ago, but their share keeps getting larger. Three years ago the rate of users aged above 50 was almost nil, but now it was over 5 percent.

    Clicking grannies clock an e-record [April 3, 2008]

  5. well, this will be great for MS if allowed by WindBourne · · Score: 3, Interesting

    it is designed to kill Google, not compete. They are going to use their monopoly to control the web by forcing all MSIE users to become 'live'. Once done, their search engine will be integrated with their desktop. Of course, Google will sue in court later on, MS will be found guilty, and MS will simply pay. Not a bad deal for MS.

    But I am guessing that W would allow it (MS paid a lot of money to his campaign), but EU, China, Russia, and japan will nix it. And yes, those countries do have a say. After all, they can simply shut down all Windows sales, which would push Linux to the forefront. And from their POV, that would mean new business opportunities.

    --
    I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
  6. That's the fact. Here's a link. by Futurepower(R) · · Score: 3, Interesting

    "... if you take the history of all buy-outs, the Net benefit for the firm doing the buying is roughly 0%."

    Source: Wikipedia article about Mergers and Acquisitions. Quote: "Historically, mergers have often failed (Straub, 2007) to add significantly to the value of the acquiring firm's shares (King, et al., 2004)."

    That idea is well-known, but I was unable to find another link quickly. (It's only a Slashdot comment, not the result of a research project.) For example, the merger of Time-Warner and AOL is the worst business decision of human history, and lowered the value of Time-Warner so much that employees lost much of their invested savings.

    The basic point seems valid in this case, also. Microsoft has proven, over many years, that it does not know how to run a search engine. Yahoo has proven, over many years, that...

    I'm guessing that Steve Ballmer is doing this because he wants an outlet for his anger. It's difficult to see how owning Yahoo can benefit Microsoft. One possibility is that Microsoft can try to get a partial monopoly over some kinds of internet traffic. Many people with little technical knowledge use whatever Microsoft pushes them towards.

    Microsoft is NOT a successful company, in my opinion. If Microsoft didn't have one-time monopolies created during a time when people were ignorant about computers, it would not make much profit.

    Also, the failure of Vista may indicate that Microsoft can no longer hire people intelligent enough to write working software.