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Yahoo is under pressure to clinch a deal to acquire Facebook.com, the No. 2 U.S. social networking site, to recapture momentum from Google after that company struck a deal to buy YouTube, analysts said Tuesday.Google's deal to buy video entertainment site YouTube, announced on Monday, has raised the bar for other major Internet players to strike quickly as confidence in the sector grows and valuations rise, industry insiders said.
A Yahoo acquisition of Facebook, the dominant hangout for college-age students, could approach $1 billion, these people say. Industry sources have previously said the pair have held talks although it is unsure what stage these are currently at.
Google Merger Ups Pressure On Yahoo To Strike Deal [usatoday.com]
Maybe they are getting cold feet, if they can't fix problems with their flagship product how will they integrate Facebook?
And lets look at Microsoft for a moment, with Soapbox they have (well not quite yet) entered the market, on a budget. They already have some content thanks to MSNBC etc.. so they can take the billion and, oh no, spend it on marketing and/or aquiring more content. They have done an pretty fair job IMHO with the technology, but the option to download a clip/video is sadly missing.
I have used Youtube as well as Google Video, and downloaded many a webcast from Google Video, but how long will the content remain free? What about higher resolution? What about monthly sitcoms? What about a news network from the people by the people for the people? There is room for growth, but if the wrong people get involved (record companies, telcos etc), and by that I mean primarily lawsuits, then free, well free will probably die a slow death along with the sites popularity.
If they buy Facebook, they'll probably make it less desirable. If they don't buy it, someone else will buy it, probably make it better and beat Yahoo over the head with the success. If I was Yahoo, I would just buy it and ruin it as planned, the lesser of two evils.
