

Marissa Mayer's M&A Strategy, And The Two Companies She Is Closest To Acquiring - bokonist
http://www.businessinsider.com/marissa-mayers-ma-strategy-and-the-two-companies-she-is-closest-to-acquiring-2012-11

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smegel
The problem with Yahoo is that is has no identity network. Who is logs on to
Facebook regularly? Who here is currently logged into there Google account on
Chrome? Probably lots and lots.

Who logs onto Yahoo regularly? Not that many, even though lots of people uses
Yahoo services as an anonymous visitor (I use Yahoo to check my local TV guide
for example).

No identity == no targeted advertising. Why do you think Yahoo is so against
Do Not Track? Because non-consensual tracking of web users is all it has when
it comes to targeted ads.

Facebook knows who my friends are and what I "like". Google knows what I am
searching for. Yahoo knows little or nothing about me.

Online advertising has such ludicrously low yield in terms of click-through
that targeted advertising has basically become mandatory, and Yahoo's ad
product offers very little value compare to Google or Facebook.

MM needs a way to get users to share their identity with Yahoo, but how?
Google knows who I am when I search, because I am also logged onto GMail,
Google Docs, Google Reader, and more. Obviously they need a product that
people want to log on to...but what? A social network to rival Facebook? If
that were possible, everyone would be doing it already. Nice web tools to
compete with Google? Possible, but Google has spent years developing a very
nicely integrated suite of products -- Yahoo would have it work cut out to
catch up and offer users a value proposition they cant refuse. A whole new
product altogether? Well that happens all the time in Silicon Valley where the
bright ideas happen, and Yahoo can simply join the queue when it comes to
investing and buying out such companies.

The simple fact is Yahoo is a good company, but being good is not enough --
you need to be remarkable. Look at all the "good" companies that have
disappeared over the years since the first Tech Bubble - and it is really not
that hard to imagine Yahoo going the way of MySpace and a whole bunch of
others...

