Wednesday, November 19th, 2008 by Jordan McCollum

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MSFT: For Real, We’re Not Buying Yahoo . . . Except Maybe Search

The world has changed a lot since January 31, 2008. In case you’ve just tuned in, here’s a quick recap of the last nine and a half months:

Yep, that’s it in a nutshell. Despite Yahoo’s initial rejection and later renewed-then-foundered courtship with Microsoft, rumors have persisted that Microsoft is still interested in purchasing all or part of Yahoo.

Microsoft disagrees. According to MarketWatch (via), at the annual shareholders’ meeting, CEO Steve Ballmer said:

Let me be as clear as I think I’ve tried to be publicly. . . .

We are done with all acquisition discussions with Yahoo. I’ve said that a bunch of times. Somehow some people have gotten confused nonetheless.

We did our best. We thought we had something that made sense. It didn’t make sense to them. We’ve moved on.

But perhaps he doth protest too much—especially when he follows that up with saying that purchasing the search portion of Yahoo is “interesting.”

The WSJ and Seattle PI (via) also report that Ballmer says he’s open to a “search collaboration” with Yahoo.

What do you think—is a Microsoft-Yahoo “search collaboration” a good idea? And what would it look like?


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4 comments on “MSFT: For Real, We’re Not Buying Yahoo . . . Except Maybe Search”

  1. Saad Kamal Says:

    November 20th, 2008 at 9:47 am

    Whats in it for Yahoo if they do a Search Collaboration with Microsoft? I think if yahoo has a new CEO and if they look over all their business individually and cut off all the unnecessary services that they are running (which incurs cost)..they can still stand up…without any help from Microsoft.

    Saad Kamal’s last blog post..TweetTag – Tag Search for Twitter

  2. Nicole Price Says:

    November 20th, 2008 at 9:50 am

    You will no doubt recollect my consistent opinion that Microsoft Yahoo marriage will take place sooner or later. With the departure of JY, it is now just a matter of time.

    Nicole Price’s last blog post..The Best Recipe Sites

  3. Kenney @ Work From Home Blog Says:

    November 20th, 2008 at 3:10 pm

    If they ever want to be a major contender with Google, they will have to make a deal. Obviously with every thing they’ve done so far, and they have the money, they haven’t been able to do it. They need Yahoo and Yahoo needs them. Get over it….it’s still the same company that they wanted in January, just cheaper and without Yang.

  4. Galin Says:

    December 4th, 2008 at 12:59 pm

    Nicole, it seems to me you are right. I think the reunion between Microsoft and Yahoo should have place one time; and no matter whether this event will happen in half a year or 5 years.