The “End” of Yahoo and the Beginning of the “End” for Microsoft?
The Times Online reports on the latest steps in the Microsoft (MSFT) bid for Yahoo (YHOO). The proposed deal has become more interesting with Google GOOG, Time Warner (TWX) and News Corp (NWS) paying attention to Yahoo’s 137 million visitors a month from the American market.
Google founder Larry Page has said that Microsoft is a “convicted monopolist and has a history of not playing fair”. No question, if Microsoft could dominate the search market they would do everything to squash the competition.
Microsoft will succeed in acquiring Yahoo in the next few weeks, but will they be successful in integrating the two companies into one entity capable of completing with Google? Microsoft is expecting to continue making huge profits from their desktop and operating system software, but these profits will in all probability be reduced as Google lures users away from the desktop. Both Yahoo and Microsoft have failed to beat Google in search, why will a combination of the two companies be any better?
A very good report from the Economist discussing Google’s missing clicks after a survey from Comscore showed a 7% sequential decline vs. December ‘07, in paid clicks for Google. Many see a warning of a weak first quarter for Google and sign of a slowdown in the U.S. economy affecting the online advertising market. However, Comscore reports on their blog Why Google’s surprising paid click data are less surprising. The change “is primarily a result of Google’s own quality initiatives that result in a reduction in the number of paid listings and, therefore, the opportunity for paid clicks to occur”.
