Microsoft ends bid for Yahoo…
By Eric Blackwell on May 5, 2008 in Search Engine Optimization
Yesterday, Microsoft President and CEO Steve Ballmer publicly announced the end of Microsoft’s bid to acquire Yahoo. In recent weeks, the bid had grown, largely on impressive 1st Quarter results by Yahoo. From Mr. Ballmer’s press release:
“Despite our best efforts, including raising our bid by roughly $5 billion, Yahoo! has not moved toward accepting our offer. After careful consideration, we believe the economics demanded by Yahoo! do not make sense for us, and it is in the best interests of Microsoft stockholders, employees and other stakeholders to withdraw our proposal,” said Ballmer.
OK, so what does this mean to search engine marketers? Not much and more of the same. For the most part, the only search engine to be optimizing for is Google anyway. Yahoo does not carry near the traffic and is bleeding relevance. Is it possible that the impressive 1st quarter stats were window dressing and will fall in the next few months. My research would say yes. Is it likely that Yahoo stock prices will fall now that Microsoft has ended its bid. Highly likely. Could this force Yahoo back to the table with Microsoft. Ummm..yeah…that is a possibility. Will it happen? Who knows…
I am interested in others’ opinions on this…what impact do you think it has?
3 Comment(s)
By Malok on May 5, 2008 | Reply
I think your assessments and prediction for the future are pretty accurate.
A few questions need to be answered:
What is Yahoo doing now to regain search engine traffic?
What is Yahoo doing now for their business model to generate additional revenue?
Realistically, with a company of their size, its fairly easy for CPAs to “cook the books” so to speak, to give a less than accurate representation of their true financial picture. I think the “big profits” that Yahoo generated were merely to satisfy the share holders within the company that Microsofts bid was too low - when in reality, there are very few companies that would have the desire AND ability to purchase Yahoo in the first place.
I envision Microsoft waiting until Yahoo starts floundering around again - and then presenting their new offer.
Unless Yahoo has some “magic pill” for their business plan to regain search engine traffic and additional revenue that no one knows about, Microsoft will eventually acquire them, IMO.
By admin on May 5, 2008 | Reply
Malok;
I am thinking the same way. I today’s economy and where they are currently positioned in the search field, I think they needed Microsoft more than the other way around.
A few more month will probably prove the point one way or the other.
Eric
By Milan on May 19, 2008 | Reply
It remains to be seen how it will all play out, and there is still some dancing going on. The funny thing to me is that even if M$ did acquire Yahoo, I think it would have a really hard time realizing growth from it. Microsoft’s search efforts have had all the benefit of their marketing machine, and yet their products (and Yahoo’s) just don’t seem able to do as good a job as Google, as imperfect as that may be.