Yahoo Rumor

just in from a certain notorious website

[Rugles]

The rumor is that M$ is buying Yahoo in November.
That would mean M$ would have a bigger chunk of Google.
Could also explain why Y is not awarding a contact to any search company because they will not be around to see it to the end.

Or maybe it is not true.

[korkus2000]

IMHO, I would think M$ would wait to make a large aquisition like Yahoo until after their appeals are settled. I don't think their legal trouble will be done by November.

But some other large company could be talking to yahoo. Small extensions in contracts are quit fishy.

[edited by: korkus2000 at 1:20 pm (utc) on July 18, 2002]

[Knowles]

I would be inclined to think its not true, who knows I guess we will see. If it is true I think it would be bad, yahoo would be done away with or completely changed. They are some of MSNs biggest compition.

[Marcia]

Also, Yahoo is now an ISP, SBC Yahoo Dial, with a customized browser. And according to a late news story, M$ is going paid with MSN8 for those who aren't subscribers to their ISP. So buying Yahoo means they'd be acquiring another ISP, which incorporates several of the prior SBC properties, like SBC PacBell and SBC Southern Bell (something like that).

To put it nicely, with Microsoft already tangling with issues over "disproportionate market share" in one area already, yet unresolved as korkus2000 pointed out, I think it would be unlikely that they'd do something that would be instantly looked at the same way.

[needsomehelp]

"just in from a certain notorious website"

What website? Sounds very far fetched to me.

[backus]

I could be true if you think about it. They buy Yahoo, a household search name, close MSN.co.uk, end up closing MSN.com, do away with L$, which is why they haven't done anything with them at the moment, use Yahoo as their main engine. Yahoo becomes MSN/Yahoo. Not such a stupid idea when you think about it. Will believe it when I see it though.

[Rugles]

Sticky me and I will provide the URL to the website in question.

But, this site has been right SO MANY times in the past. They get the inside info all the time.

Rumors are just rumors remember.

[littleman]

I really hope it is not true. MSN buying y! would be a repeat of Disney buying Infoseek. It would be bad for the web, bad for webmasters, and bad for consumers.

[Napoleon]

Too right Littleman... it would be catastrophic. Look at the state of MSN.Com in terms of returns. Yahoo may be poor in many respects, but relatively....

[richlowe]

It would be bad for the web, bad for webmasters, and bad for consumers.

Yahoo is already bad for the web, bad for webmasters and bad for consumers. If this were not true, it's profits would be soaring and it would be a solid company.

Richard Lowe

[agerhart]

In some aspects you are right Rich, but not in all, and you can't make a broad statement like that.

Yahoo is still a large source of search engine traffic. = Good for webmasters

Yahoo is still a good place to find products and services, either in their directory or within their search results powered by Google. = Good for the consumer

[Lisa]

I think this rumor could be very true. There are three main IM companies (AOL, Yahoo, MSFT). And three main Map companies (Yahoo, AOL's Mapquest, MS's ExpediaMaps). Yahoo is caught in the middle of two monopolies fighting. Things in the middle don't stand a chance. Either MSFT or AOL has to buy Yahoo. Since AOL is losing money left and right it would make sense bank MSFT would be the one buying. When you have 40 Billion in cash you got to buy something with it. :) If I was MSFT I would buy Google then Yahoo.

Here is just a few good reasons MSFT would want them.
- Yahoo's Maps
- Yahoo's HotJobs
- Yahoo IM
- Yahoo Games
- Yahoo Directory
- Yahoo slice of Google
- Yahoo's Millions of customers

[rogerd]

Either this rumor is a very well kept secret, or the stock market isn't putting much faith in it. Yahoo is down 37 cents so far today. The good news is that there's still time to call your stockbroker and get in before they call a press conference! ;)

[Rugles]

Lisa

Good summary. I had not thought that deep about the reasons.
I would put the odds at better than 50/50.

[JamesR]

It really would be a good buy for their control and dominate philosophy. How big a percentage of web visibility would that give Microsoft? Scary.

[herb]

Anyone rember this rumor?
[ecommercetimes.com...]
Check out the prices of the Ebay stock.

[korkus2000]

Microsoft and Yahoo are also the two largest providers of free web based email. It would be a big move for microsoft. They would be an enormous web company if they did.

[Brad]

I think there might be several companies that are interested in buying Yahoo. If you wanted to be a big player in the national or world ISP market you would want your own search service, just like MSN and AOL have.

[diddlydazz]

how come no-one has mentioned all the email accounts ??

They must be worth considering.

Dazz

[skibum]

It would be absolutely horrible if MSN bought YAHOO!, especially with its stake in Google. I's hate to think how bad the web would be with MSFT controlling that much of the the information accessed online.

[Lisa]

Why would it be a bad thing? I think Microsoft is a great company. Look at all the innovation they have done. The tech industry would not be where they are today without them. I am one of those people that invested in them in the late 80's. :) And that money has grown and grown.... They are a wonderful company, just look at all the good they have done in the pacific northwest! They employee 20,000 people here and lots of my friends work there. Just think of all the fun games you can play while using their Operating System. Think about how MS-Word and MSIE have made our lives easier and better.

[Rugles]

I like M$ but I would like them even more if I invested in the late 80's.
Wow, good decision.

[JamesR]

>Why would it be a bad thing?

They just haven't demonstrated their trustworthiness. Being sued by what 13 states and found guilty doesn't build consumer confidence IMO. I am not convinced they have the user's best interests in mind. And their ability to reach and influence that many more people on the web through Yahoo just gets scarier.

Evil empire :)

[Jill]

>Yahoo is down 37 cents so far today<

After this thread gets out it might just go up a bit ;)

[Grumpus]

SBC/Prodigy, and Yahoo! have too many eggs in the pan for Microsoft to come in anytime soon. Contracts are too new. Yahoo is consistently heading toward being competition for AOL and MSN with the SBC/Prodigy tie-in, we can be even more sure they are looking to compete, not to join one or the other. SBC, while nowhere near the size of Microsoft or Time/Warner, is not a little player by any stretch of the imagination.

I don't see it happening. I just don't see it.

G.

[zechariah]

Hmm, like Bill hasn't enough spare change to buy up anything. What value would Yahoo be at 1.5 Bil?

[skibum]

While it might not pay off financially right away for MSFT to buy YAHOO!, IMHO, it would benefit them long term to have more control over the information people access on the web in the form of owning YAHOO! or closing YAHOO! and Google, LookSmart, and any other major player out there.

Trust and Microsoft don't belong in the same sentence. They have the power to dictate crazy licencing terms to their corporate clients and continually demand dramatically increasing fees. The cost of switching is immense as is the cost of doing business with Microsoft.

For them to start applying their methodology and business practices to accessing info on the web would not be good.

[chiyo]

Lisa, Im not sure whether your post re MS is up front or satirical.

One thing i would absolutely disagree on. Given its size and influence, MS's innovation is abysmal. They have grown by acquisition and copying other's ideas rather than any down home innovation. They have indeed discouraged innovation outside, as most developers know that if you come up with a real innovation, MS would copy it. True innovators hardly ever make money anyway.

As a marketing company i would give them A++. For busines strategy I would give them a B+. For innovation I would give them an F. For quality control i would give them a D.

Gate's spin that MS is innovative and has helped the world become techno is just that.. absolute spin. It is deft marketing that made MS great.

That my objective take, and I am no anti-MS zealot and use several of their products.

[lazerzubb]

If i have got the whole concept with .NET this would be pretty good for microsoft
since they would increase the usage of it, and they would probably make every company that used Yahoo to deliver data to use .NET

[Brett_Tabke]

Well, the quality of the source of this rumor is dubious. On the other hand, they are 100% correct on the last rumor (ink layoffs).