
Microsoft meets with private equity over Yahoo deal - surement
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-microsoft-yahoo-idUSKCN0WS067
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mbesto
This looks like another Informatica deal [0]. It actually makes a ton of
sense. Yahoo needs to get out of the scrutiny of the public markets and into a
private ownership that wants long term results (EBITDA growth year over year)
and less trendy bets that try to raise the status of the company (i.e.
Tumblr).

[0] - [http://www.computerworld.com/article/2960729/enterprise-
appl...](http://www.computerworld.com/article/2960729/enterprise-
applications/microsoft-salesforcecom-join-53-billion-informatica-buyout.html)

~~~
kolbe
That doesn't mean Microsoft needs to get involved. Generally speaking,
entities that provide debt financing for private equity investments are the
biggest suckers in the investment community.

~~~
drited
Article says one of reasons for Microsoft's interest is to preserve search and
ad deals with Yahoo

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sangnoir
> Article says one of reasons for Microsoft's interest is to preserve search
> and ad deals with Yahoo

Note that preservation of the search deal might not be in Yahoo's best
interest, so depending on where you stand, Microsoft doesn't "need" to be
involved in this.

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simonw
Just out of interest, anyone know why the dateline on that article would be
Healdsburg?

> Healdsburg, CALIFORNIA (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) executives are in
> early talks with potential Yahoo Inc (YHOO.O) investors...

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newobj
Great little town on the fringe of wine country, why not?

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stale2002
Oh the Irony! I bet they wish they took the 45 billion 8 years ago.

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jasonjei
In their defense, their Alibaba stake is actually still quite formidable. But
the bid back then was for Yahoo's core businesses...

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stale2002
The funny thing is that Yahoo's alibaba stake + cash on hand is worth
something like 40 billion, but yahoo's current market cap is ~35 billion. AKA,
Yahoo's core business is worth negative 5 billion dollars.

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Retric
You are ignoring taxes. Getting 35 billion dollars from selling Alibaba shares
into the hands of there stockholders is not simple.

~~~
limeyx
I'm sure they will find a way to pipe the deal through Ireland and offshore
that profit

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SeeDave
I still believe that Steve Ballmer is the only man who can rescue Yahoo.

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rokhayakebe
Can someone explain to me why Facebook isn't buying Yahoo? Perfect Fit.

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this_user
In what regard? FB has been know to buy hot start-ups that might threaten
their business (e.g. Instagram, WhatsApp). Yahoo is a boring old dinosaur
whose core business is failing. The only thing worth anything is their stake
in Alibaba. The sole thing they own that might interest FB is Tumblr. But
Yahoo recently disclosed that they may write down all of the remaining value
of that service, which would be $1.1B down the drain.

~~~
rokhayakebe
They are both portals. Facebook social portal. Yahoo personal portal. Go to FB
to check friends and discuss things with those you know. Go to Yahoo to check
emails, and news and discuss with those you do not know. Facebook is your
world. Yahoo is the world at large.

~~~
cududa
That's like saying Tesla should buy a couple small auto makers - you know,
because they both make cars and it'd be a perfect fit.

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zappo2938
I had to use Bing and Yahoo search APIs because Google won't let me
programmatically use Google search. They are awful and combining them won't
help.

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rory096
Yahoo Search is already powered by Bing – since 2009.[1]

[1]
[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8174763.stm](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8174763.stm)

~~~
gcb0
which proves the anecdote comment above is probably BS

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rory096
That's a little much. They _do_ offer a Search API [1] (well, until Friday).
Just not terribly surprising it wasn't any better than Bing (since it is
Bing).

[1]
[https://developer.yahoo.com/boss/search/](https://developer.yahoo.com/boss/search/)

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lesdeuxmagots
Indeed. BOSS was available until recently; the XML API for search is available
as a replacement.

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fweespee_ch
Lol, good luck shoring up Bing.

I'm sorry but Bing has no real value proposition vs. Google or even Yandex. :/

~~~
sremani
I disagree, I use Bing on regular basis (also their rewards which I use to
donate to local school helps). The results are comparable with Google, and are
not that far off by any standards. Its the habit of Googling rather than
Objective result set, that is impediment to Bing adoption. Now that Cortana is
on Windows 10, lets see.

~~~
fweespee_ch
> The results are comparable with Google, and are not that far off by any
> standards.

What is the value proposition that differentiates them from Google?

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Analemma_
The rewards are one. Granted, they're not huge (I also use Bing and find it
amounts to about 1 $5 Amazon gift card per month), but if you find the result
quality indistinguishable, it's enough. Also, like sremani, I want to drive
innovation in the area of search, and while lots of people pay lip service to
wanting more competition, putting your money where your mouth is by not using
Google is the only real way to do that.

~~~
chris11
True, I really do like the rewards. But I really think Bing would get rid of
them if it would was a good financial decision. And I think it would be a
decent decision if Bing was doing better.

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Analemma_
I'm sure that Microsoft has a great deal of data telling them that the Rewards
program has a positive ROI, especially because a lot of the rewards are
sweepstakes which essentially cost them nothing. Also, I have watched other
people use Bing and seen four-digit numbers in their rewards count on the top-
right. (It's agonizing, like watching someone who doesn't know about tab-
completion use the command line.) This tells me that the number of people who
_use_ the Rewards is quite small and this contributes to its usefulness.

