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AOL Jumps Into the Ring with Microsoft, Yahoo!, Google
mikkl666 writes "Even just since this morning, there's much to report in the ongoing fight between Microsoft and Yahoo!. After Yahoo! announced yesterday that they are testing Google AdSense, Microsoft reacted with a comment pointing out that 'any definitive agreement between Yahoo! and Google would consolidate over 90% of the search advertising market in Google's hands.' Ironically, they complain that 'this would make the market far less competitive.' Both companies try to team up with strong partners, as well. Yahoo! and AOL are now closing in on a deal to combine their Internet operations. And of course, this morning's news was that Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. is apparently in talks for a joint bid for Yahoo!"
steampunk web design
Can you say Yea! Defense!
C'mon. Yahoo is pluckings now. Default to Google, if no Microsoft buy.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Live by Anti-trust litigation, die by anti-trust litigation.
"Ironically, they complain that 'this would make the market far less competitive.'"
Ironically? I would have said "Cynically", even if for once Microsoft has a valid point!
.
At least with AOL+Yahoo you know that the email servers won't be swapped out just to use MS SW. And none of the Yahoo supported OSS software will be turf'd (ie. that Exchange server alternative)
Obama's legacy: (N)othing (S)ecure (A)nywhere and (T)error (S)imulation (A)dministration
It's like the bouncing yappy dog that won't go away. :)
Execute? [Y/N] _
and call themselves Brawndo
News Corp reaches out and tags Microsoft. Microsoft picks up a chair (signature move) and BAM smacks YAHOO across the back!
Yahoo stumbles over and tags AOL, who does a Flying forearm smash to the face...
Starting to feel like we need a claymation Deathmatch for this.
> Yahoo is pluckings now.
Yup, Yahoo! is now officially dead and the buzzards are just fighting to see who gets to rip off the more choice hunks of meat from the bones.
Sad, but everybody should have seen this coming for at least five years so it is hard to be shocked or anything.
Democrat delenda est
Next, on the Young and the Restless: Search engine merger; murder?
`Two Men Drowning'
``The AOL-Yahoo thing reminds me of two men drowning, both grabbing on to each other,'' said Mike Holland, who oversees more than $4 billion at Holland & Co. in New York, including Microsoft shares. ``It usually doesn't end in a pretty way or a smart way or an effective way.''
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Fsck both of those words. I would say that the word is "Karmically".
My blog
Combining their efforts, aye? Can't get much crappier than that...
"He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
If News Corp outbids Microsoft for Yahoo!, will I still be able to search for information about Democrats using their site, or will it be a fair and balanced search engine?
this type of thing is happening regularly. the steady settling and coagulation of the tech markets signals the beginning of an ugly battle between the state and the market. there's plenty of room for debate over who is in the right, but there is no question that the quality of the services the industry provides suffers when big fiscal issues get in the way.
our only hope is that OSS can pick up a portion of the market. the great thing about free software is that it could grow to consume entire markets (sadly, only theoretically) and still provide for unlimited inter-project competition and cooperation. it's a win-win for those who want to see an organization combating monopolies by sidestepping the traditional free market and for those who wish to see the government out of software.
AOL+Yahoo doesn't strike me as being able to produce better services than Yahoo alone could. Or MS+Yahoo. Or any other combination.
The bigger a company is, the more cultural inertia it has, the less willing it is to try something new. Would strapping AOL's "never change anything" mentality to any company make it better? At least Microsoft has occasionally given one of its subdivisions such free-reign that it's been able to innovate (Microsoft mice, xbox360's networking features). Still, MS is mostly extra baggage.
Yahoo by itself is already producing tons of different services, on the off-chance that a handful will be successful. Combining with someone larger will certainly slow that down. Would that slowdown be offset by making some more likely to be successful? I doubt it.
Me too!
Well, at this rate I'd like to throw my hat in too, and announce that I'd like to buy Yahoo! as well.
Anyone else?
I'd also like to be taken into consideration as the father of Anna Nicole's baby.
If you don't know what AltaVista is (was), get off my lawn.
This news image over on engadget has got to be one of the creepiest things I've seen in a while.
An entire sentence from the Slashdot story, on 2008-04-10 at 12:53 PDT:
Microsoft.
The parent comment: "The great slashdot editors apparently thought that Microsoft deserved an entire sentence all to itself."
LOL. It amazes me how little Slashdot editors have learned over the years. Let that be a lesson to anyone who spends time playing video games. You need all your time learning how the world works. There is no time to spend being an angry button-presser.
Or, theory 2, maybe stories about Microsoft only need one proper noun. Articles, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs are understood. No need to repeat words like "evil", "Ballmer", "chair", "monopoly", "Chief of Grief", or "Software's Dr. Death".
That's an idea for a story submission. The entire Slashdot story could be just one word, "Microsoft". I'm sure there would be hundreds of comments. I know I'd post my usual comment: "The problem with Vista is that buyers are becoming technically knowledgeable enough that they don't want to be beta testers of a very unfinished product that requires them to buy more powerful hardware. Remember that Windows XP Service Pack 2 was released only 3 years ago. Before that was 3 years during which every Windows XP customer was a beta tester of a very unfinished product that didn't even handle USB very well."
mikkl666, are you saying that you submitted good English, but the Slashdot editors ruined your story?
I would welcome an AOL-Yahoo merger, way over an MS-Yahoo destructo-fest.
expandfairuse.org
Microsoft is afraid of moving apps off the desktop. In a world where computers boot a simple OS, then open a web browser to get all work (email, documents, spreadsheets, everything else) done scares the hell out of microsoft. That is not the business model that microsoft has been using. I don't think microsoft could switch to that kind of business model any time soon.
The little boys in Redmond (Ballmer no exception regardless of his girth) have always been a bit delusional. If 90% of a market is held by one company in one market and that is anti-competitive then 90% of a market held by one company in the OS market is obviously anti-competitive.
The Redmond boys need to stick to copying software ideas and stay out of the big boy markets where they obviously are limited in mental maturity.
You can lead a man with reason but you can't make him think.
So with all the speculation about MS+YAHOO+AOL ending up one company, what will the name be?
I like their email service; nearly everybody I know has yahoo mail accounts. But I agree that most of their offerings are completely pointless.
Yahoo + AOL = Good
Yahoo + AOL + Microsoft = Bad
Yahoo + AOL + News Corp = Ugly
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
I'm inclined to agree with techdirt's analysis... this is an indication that the big players are taking their eyes off the ball. The more mergers/reshuffling/synergistic-focus-shifting that goes on among these companies, the more opportunity there is for an small, innovative and efficient company to step into the void.
"I zero-index my hamsters" - Willtor (147206)
AOL is just the wimpy kid who gets picked last in gym. Sort of like the wart on my big toe that never goes away, but isn't big enough for me to really notice it. Yahoo! Is more of the skanky whore who sleeps with everyone (except for the kid who gets picked last in gym). Everyone makes a pass at her, most get some attention, but you'll probably end up with something unwanted that you need to get meds to treat. The funniest thing to me is that all of my Microsoft friends (and I have a few working in Redmond), not involved in Live are just chomping at the bit to get a 'decent' search engine attached to their product.
A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.
Which is why they bought FaST.
This isn't about search - it's barely about advertising.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Ok lets look at the numbers on this.
Looking at Time Warner's annual report you can see that from FY05 to FY07, AOL revenues are down 36%. Conversely, operating income excluding one-time items is up 21%.
This implies that the AOL division has remained profitable primarily by cost cutting, not by natural growth in its business. For example, it took them $7.52 to generate $1 of operating income in 2005. That ratio (revenue/operating income) is now down to $3.89.
Yahoo's business, on the other hand, is the mirror image of AOL's. Revenues from 2005-2007 are up 32.55%, while operating income is down 66.61%. This is mainly due to operating costs increasing 67% in the same period.
So essentially, you have a business, AOL, who sucks at generating revenue but is good at cutting costs, being bought out by a business, Yahoo, that is good at generating revenues (we'll see whether that holds in a recessionary environment), but horrible at keeping costs under control. If the two managements can learn from each other, this combination might actually work out for shareholders.
Of course, for Yahoo employees, it means pack your desks up because heads are rolling if YahAOL is formed.
The sun beams down on a brand new day, No more welfare tax to pay, Unsightly slums gone up in flashing light...
http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=8
The good news is that OSX is slowly gaining momentum. I see nothing wrong with Google providing Yahoo's ad service. If Google can do it better and bring in more money, then let them do what they do best.
1) Yahoo uses Google for ads ...
2) AOL and Yahoo partner
3) Microsoft and News Corp partner
4) Microsoft/News Corp buy AOL/Yahoo
5) Aomicrogoonewshoo Corp is formed?!
6)
7) Profit!!
-SixD
Yup, Yahoo! is now officially dead and the buzzards are just fighting to see who gets to rip off the more choice hunks of meat from the bones.
Wow, $4 billions in profits is dead?
FalconShould there be a Law?
In a world where computers boot a simple OS, then open a web browser to get all work (email, documents, spreadsheets, everything else) done scares the hell out of microsoft. That is not the business model that microsoft has been using.
Actually MS has been working on offering software as a service for some years. Just log into the website and there's your documents, much like Google Apps.
FalconShould there be a Law?
Now that's what I'm waiting for!
Engineering is the art of compromise.
Ironically, they complain that 'this would make the market far less competitive.'
what the summary really meant was:
Hypocritically, they complain that 'this would make the market far less competitive.'
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
Okay, I'm willing to give way on my hatred for Microsoft if it's a battle between them and Rupert Murdock. He's one scary mother fucker.
Multiplayer Gaming (defined): Sitting around, discussing single-player games with my friends, at the bar.
I'd rather have 2 big players instead of one colossus Search company that if things go wrong, the whole planet suffers.
I don't think this is quite true. Unlike an OS or apps it's easy to switch your search engine. While I mostly use Google I also use About, Alta Vista, Ask.com, and Mooter. On the other hand, if you're using online apps then yes it can be hard to switch. However I'd rather have my apps running and my docs stored locally. At most I'd vpn into my home server while on the road.
FalconShould there be a Law?
In the mean time, AltaVista is standing quietly in the corner nursing its drink, trying to muster up the courage to ask ChaCha for a dance. Awwwww :(
Do a search on Alta Vista some time, the results have Yahoo! stamped all over them. Whether that's because the results come from Yahoo! or Yahoo! provides any ads or something else I don't know.
FalconShould there be a Law?
So not spending extra words citing your idea means you can bring the copyright angle in as well?
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
Unsigned 32-bit wrap-around.
"Believe me!" -- Donald Trump
AOL? When did AOL become relevant again? Apart from using old ad-disks in interesting and creative ways, does anyone still use AOL frequently?
The AOl, Newscorp stuff, is just business as usual, a means by which to force up M$ bid, to bleed it of more cash, don't forget both AOl and Newscorp are likely to have some sort of investment in Yahoo, so forcing M$ to substantially increase it's bid is a double plus bonus.
Newscorp is shifting further into being a web portal and AOL is starting to recover, Yahoo is reality is ahead of Google in being a portal and the one being left behind, the one consistently losing money, the one the parent company sees as a dead loss, is MSN or is it 'Live' or should that be 'Dead'.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
my favorite line:
...and that, my friends, is the pot calling the kettle black.... hey Microsoft - remember windows desktop monopoly? or does browser wars ring a bell????
"Microsoft reacted with a comment pointing out that 'any definitive agreement between Yahoo! and Google would consolidate over 90% of the search advertising market in Google's hands.'"
Microsoft reacted with a comment pointing out that 'any definitive agreement between Yahoo! and Google would consolidate over 90% of the search advertising market in Google's hands.' Remember when Microsoft stole most of their base OS code and forced companies to sell their computers with windows or else face horrible law suits and eventually go under? Remember when microsoft owned 90% of the PC os market and explorer dominated in the WWW market? Remember when Microsoft was being fined by European courts for anti-trust issues... So so long ago. Microsoft should just sit down and stfu.
Except for the fact that it would need Internet Explorer to get all the features.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
The AOl, Newscorp stuff, is just business as usual, a means by which to force up M$ bid
Actually News Corp proposed joining with Microsoft to buy Yahoo! "Microsoft & News Corp. Joint Bid For Yahoo". News Corp-Microsoft talks are still going on on a joint venture to acquire Yahoo!.
Should there be a Law?
Except for the fact that it would need Internet Explorer to get all the features.
While that would be a stupid move I can see Microsoft requiring IE for web based apps.
FalconShould there be a Law?