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Yahoo said the "For Sale" sign is still on its front lawn and that Microsoft should buy the company.The internet portal's co-founder and CEO Jerry Yang made the comment despite the fact Yahoo rejected a $33 (£21) a share offer from Microsoft back in May.
Mr Yang's suggestion also came hours after Google pulled out of an internet advertising partnership with Yahoo.
"To this day the best thing for Microsoft to do is buy Yahoo," said Mr Yang.
"I don't think that is a bad idea at all, at the right price whatever that price is. We're willing to sell the company," he told a packed ballroom at the Web 2.0 summit in San Francisco.
There are many stages of a person's life. And at this stage Yang, no matter his past accomplishments, how great, he is utterly visionless. It's sad. Icahn (sp) knew this and wanted change, but the other board members apparently rallied around Yang's lack of vision. Looks like Icahn is the visionary now.
I'll bet Balmer is all kinds of happy now. He can walk in and pick and choose what he wants or low ball'em, whatever he wants to do. Like Balmer remarked about the early meetings with IBM. Microsoft always had to BOGU (bend over and grease up), now it's Yahoo's turn.
Right now things are so messy that even at $15 ps, MS will not think of buying Y! They indicated once the buying-Y deal was over, that they have “moved on”.
Dump search, go back to using the directory (which they can monetize), and which will provide relevant search results.
Dump 'partners', treat advertisers well, and go back to a simple bid system instead of trying to BE Google.
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Anyone else keep their 'Yahoo!' screaming button they got a year or so back? I'm going to display mine next to my Atari stock certificates.
Hindsight makes everyone a genius.
It dosn't take a genius to accept a ten-figure check for a business that saw its peak years ago.
A combined, streamlined Y! MS is the only chance of creating a true competitor to Google. That is vitally important.
I think we're looking in the wrong place for an emerging competitor. I agree that some competition is essential (for all sorts of reasons), but both of these companies (Y! and MS) have already shown that they are simply unable to compete against Google. Lumping these idiots together isn't going to help, in my opinion.
No... I think we need to look to a start-up, much like Google was. Unfortunately, the length of time it will take for any start-up to make significant inroads to "competitor" status is quite long. Scariest of all... I can't even see anyone in that start-up phase that has what it takes.
Sorry it this is kind of out of place but what else can ya say about this turn of events. :)
I'm going to add my voice of support to Yang. He doesn't deserve the heavy criticism he's getting. He built a great thing at a young age. Some other BIG SHOTS with no vision blew a great thing. He was given the reigns at a devastating time and didn't have a fair chance to turn things around. He inherited a mess and had to spend time putting out fire after fire. It's easy to judge from your terminal, but he sounds like a guy who cared about the company and the people. A rare thing in this day and age. I remain a fan of Yahoo and Yang and feel sad that circumstances are tainting his name.
Hindsight makes everyone a genius.
Being a nice guy is one thing, driving your company into the ground single handly is another.
Microsoft needs the search element of Google and its patents. It doens't really need the rest.
Regards...jmcc
That said I somewhat share Clark's thoughts on the matter.
