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Why Yahoo Turned Microsoft Down

Posted by kdawson on from the you-scratch-my-back dept.

quarterbuck writes "The NYTimes has up a great blog post that explains a bit of the backstory behind the Yahoo-Microsoft No-deal. While Jerry Yang did not want to sell the company, it is not likely that he could have said No to Microsoft, and explained it to shareholders, without the help of Google. The article gives reasons behind Google's tossing a lifeline to its biggest competitor, and the 'coop-etition' that has been going on between the two companies, which both emerged out of Stanford University."

3 of 161 comments (clear)

  1. Time will tell... by HerculesMO · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If Yahoo's stock price continues to decline, MS has intelligently kept their offer "on the table".

    If stockholders come to MS for a bailout of their capital, they don't even need a hostile takeover -- it will be a willing one. And the profits Yahoo posts from Google won't reflect in their stock price for a while.

    We'll see how long it takes Yahoo investors to either let the company rebound, or to bail themselves out. Yang is in an interesting position, that's all I can say.

    --
    The price is always right if someone else is paying.
    1. Re:Time will tell... by lilfields · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Why would Microsoft axe Yahoo? They would just put them on the same search index and advertising algorithm. Live actually has a good index...I think Microsoft could wait 2 years and they could get Yahoo at half the price, especially the way Jerry Yang is driving it into the ground. He makes Terry Semel look like a genius for crying outloud; Yang needs to let go, he's getting a steal. Microsoft, is good with money pits, they turned the Xbox franchise into a profitable entity and forced Sony to take massive losses in their PS3.

  2. The Wii's big - but stingy - audience by westlake · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Nintendo slipped in. The Wii already has more marketshare than the Xbox and is profitable.

    It hasn't been all peaches and cream for the Wii.

    Wii, though less technologically advanced than Microsoft's Xbox 360 or Sony's PlayStation 3, continues to outsell those machines and is now in more than 20 million homes.
    So why are retailers having so much trouble selling Wii games?
    Take Super Smash Bros. Brawl. It was one the most hotly anticipated video games of the year; it sold more than 1.4 million copies during the first week of its release.
    But sales dropped more than 90 percent over the first four weeks.
    A number of games that garnered critical acclaim in recent months, notably the cartoonish action-adventure game Zack & Wiki and the off-kilter action-adventure No More Heroes, have yielded disappointing sales.
    Over the first three months of the year, only three other Wii titles broke the list of top 10 best-selling games.
    Younger children, women and older consumers, who historically have not been sought by the video-game industry, have discovered video games through the Wii -- just not that many of them.
    These new gamers are content with the games they have, often going no further than the Wii Sports game that comes with the machine. They don't buy new games with the fervor of a traditional gamer who is constantly seeking new stimulation.
    The average Wii owner buys only 3.7 games a year, compared with 4.7 for Xbox 360 owners and 4.6 for PlayStation 3 owners.
    "When you make a game like Zack & Wiki or Boogie, which turns the hard core off and doesn't reach the masses, then you're in trouble."
    Wii Fit, an exercise game due next month, is expected to receive more marketing dollars than any game in Nintendo's history -- and the money will not be spent wooing young men. "Wii Fit is just not aimed at hard-core gamers. It's definitely aimed at the Oprah crowd. I bet they sell a million units a week for every pound that Oprah says she lost on it."

    New Wii Games Find a Big (but Stingy) Audience [April 21, 2008]