Why would Google pay for a second rate search engine and a bunch of Web 1.0 apps?
Because Yahoo has a lot more on the ball than just a bunch of outdated applications, like Yahoo Mail.
While Google continues to dominate search, Yahoo has won a significant number of online battles with the search king:
1. Yahoo! Mail, which accounts for almost 50% of the free email market, has more than 10 times the market share of Gmail.
2. Yahoo! Answers is a major hit… Google Answers failed.
3. Yahoo’s Flickr is a runaway hit… far outpacing Google’s Picasa photo site.
4. In critical verticals, like finance, Yahoo remains the clear leader despite much effort by Google.
Both Yahoo! and Google are cozying up to the newspaper industry with their respective efforts. Combine the two efforts and a successful outcome for all parties is almost guaranteed.
Want to acquire display/brand ad expertise? Forget DoubleClick – Yahoo’s ad sales expertise and relationships with big Madison Ave brands and agencies are far superior.
Besides, as long as Google’s going to get scrutinized under federal antitrust regulators and now Congress, might as well go through all that headache with the promise of a much bigger catch at the end.
Right now Google looks like it could face a fight to finalize its deal for DoubleClick.
If Google faces this much resistance to buying DoubleClick, how much more friction would a deal for Yahoo create?
I think this proposed deal could be the first major acquisition in the last few years to actually face the threat regulatory intervention, which is probably a sign that it makes great business sense.
What do you think? Should Google just buy Yahoo? Or is this deal impossible in the current regulatory and business environments?
If you want to find out all the latest news on tech why not subscribe to our RSS feed?
Seems pretty silly to me … Google’s products are for the most part better and easier to use … Yahoo’s a dinasaur. Why waste money on merging with all that dead weight when you could spend it on your own technology and better marketing of your existing products.
If memory serves me, some time ago Google would not turn over users private search information to the U.S. Government when Yahoo and others did.
I believe todays issues with the the spolight on Google trying to buy DoubleClick is all because of this past lack of cooperation (which I applaud Google for doing).
Unfortunetly, it is pointless for Google to even spend a second on trying to buy Yahoo. The powers that be will make sure it is not going to happen.
It would be nice to see Google and Microsoft get into a battle over Yahoo!
Just imagine what that would do to Yahoo’s share price.
If Google made a bid, you can bet dollars to donuts that Microsoft would jump into the mix.
I think that Google should put more effort toward making some of its existing products better. Merging with Yahoo just doesn’t sound like a good idea. It would probably be more of a hassle than it’s worth; not to mention Google is having such problems with acquiring DoubleClick.
Does anyone else think that Microsoft might end up with DoubleClick after all?