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Microsoft Circles Back to Yahoo With New Offer

Posted by timothy on from the soap-operas-never-end dept.

Ian Lamont writes "Microsoft has come back to Yahoo with a new offer that would involve it buying part of Yahoo. No details have been released, but sources told the Wall Street Journal that part of the arrangement would involve Microsoft selling display ads next to Yahoo search results. No word yet on how this will impact Carl Icahn's proxy war with Yahoo's board."

2 of 143 comments (clear)

  1. Web advertising by BadAnalogyGuy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Maybe I'm the only one missing the big picture, and in turn, the boat on web advertisements. I just don't get it anymore. It seems like such a waste of money to put up web ads when the average web user simply ignores them and the advanced users block them completely.

    Media companies have grown huge on advertising, but they have also spent huge sums to produce and purchase programming that attracted viewers. Online content is nowhere nearly as expensive to produce, and the target web audience is much smaller than TV audiences. I just don't see how online advertising can carry a company much farther than they've already come.

    I just don't get it. It seems like anyone trying to sell online advertising space is trying to squeeze pennies out of sheep. For all the effort going in to providing these online advertising spaces, I just can't imagine the payoff being that great.

  2. Optimal strategy for Microsoft now by Animats · · Score: 5, Interesting

    • Wait for Icahn to get a majority on the board.
    • Cut a deal with Icahn for the parts of Yahoo they want.
    • Let Icahn find buyers for the rest of the assets.
    • Profit!

    This makes more sense than buying the whole company, which is way overpriced and overstaffed for its revenue. All Microsoft really needs, after all, is the brand, so they can drive traffic to MSN.