TinkyWinky - 9:04 pm on Jan 13, 2008 (gmt 0)

The problem that we all need to see relates to market share :

Goog online search - 80%+ market share
Yell online & Yellow pages directory - 75%+ of local

If G do buy - then they must be buying Yell to tap into the local advertisers - the mom+pop businesses that they will increasingly need to prop up advertising rev and advertising growth in the UK

Anyone who is anyone online (almost) advertises with G already. They are already after getting more cash out of everyone - but they need to start attracting new blood to keep the UK steaming along with it's profit margin forecasts...

Let's be honest £2bill really isn't much for a business for G - especially when a deal like this would all but tie up maybe 90%+ of users that search online or locally for something/anything.

Thomson will not be able to cope with that and will become a 2-bit player in the UK leaving no one to challenge G n either search or offline media.

It also ties in with their trials of print advertising that are being considered for the UK - this really would fit in with a lot of the Yell type of customer and allow them to cross-sell offline and online advertisers.

just my 2p!