
Microsoft is in talks to acquire Yahoo’s online search business for $20 billion - nickb
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/technology/article5258258.ece
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kqr2
If true, Icahn's recent purchase of 6.8 million Yahoo shares is rather timely:

[http://www.latimes.com/business/investing/la-fi-
yahoo29-2008...](http://www.latimes.com/business/investing/la-fi-
yahoo29-2008nov29,0,5381025.story)

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wheels
I suspect that was so that he can try to push a deal like this through. If it
were already more or less a done deal it seems it'd be asking for prosecution
for inside trading.

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mwinters58
Yahoo's insider blackout period began this week, so it's no surprise that he
bulked up before he's blocked out for the next 6 weeks.

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markessien
This will be good news for Yahoo, because Yahoo has the problem of being
spread across all of the most competitive fields on the net - search, portal,
email, video, sports. Taking away one part of this, frees yahoo up to focus on
evolving the web instead of trying to battle the giants.

Microsoft is huge - it has the resources to tackle google on search. Let the
two titans fight it out, and let yahoo go back to being startup-like, work on
their developer tools, create an API for the web, build their email product,
expand in the 3rd world and so on.

Losing search is not only profitable, it will cause an increased focus on
creating money-making and competitive products out of the rest of Yahoos
properties.

Assuming the new CEO is any good.

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greyman
> Microsoft is huge - it has the resources to tackle google on search.

What exactly do you mean by "tackle"? Microsoft has enough software engineers,
but they don't have enough time and search data to catch up. Google has
enormous log files from user's search behaviour and experience battling search
spammers. And this is what Microsoft is lacking and cannot buy.

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utsmokingaces
[http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/29/reports-of-new-
microsof...](http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/29/reports-of-new-microsoft-
yahoo-search-deal-hard-to-believe/)

This is a false story.

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utsmokingaces
Buying only the search business is an awful awful deal. The new search
business will still reside in yahoo's web properties. Yahoo will definitely
neglect the m$ search advertising in favor of luring consumers to its display
ads. This is like saying you are going to adopt a kid from a foster home and
leaving her there.

Yahoo's strength is in its content not search. Paying 20B (which is more than
the market value of yahoo) for search market share just doesn't make sense.

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echair
I wonder if Yahoo would be allowed to build a new search business. I'm sure
they could do that for way less than $20 billion.

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nickb
A deal with MS, for $20B, will include a clause that says that MS will be the
default search engine and search engine advertiser on all of the Yahoo's
properties for a very long time. So what would Yahoo do with a new search
engine?

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sh1mmer
Does anyone know the source of this rumour?

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samson
Yahoo's market cap right now is hoovering around $16B. So Microsoft wants to
pay $20B for their search business?

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Fuca
It is logical. Search is where the money is at.

For me the biggest business mystery in the world is why the adsense/adword
model was not exactly copied ASAP by Yahoo, since that was making billions to
your direct competitor.

