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What Do Yahoo, Microsoft & The Rolling Stones Have in Common?

posted on July 27, 2009

You can’t always get what you want
You can’t always get what you want
You can’t always get what you want
But if you try sometimes well you just might find
You get what you need…

And, if we believe the latest report from AdAge, neither Microsoft or Yahoo will get exactly what they want from a potential partnership. Instead, both will make significant compromises in order to put a deal together that might just help them compete with Google.

The deal will likely be based purely on a revenue share–a far cry from what Yahoo had hoped for:

Yahoo’s request for an upfront payment (it is said to have asked for several hundred million), in addition to revenue guarantees that would amount to billions over the course of the deal, caused a breakdown last week in the on-again-off-again talks. But they were revived late on Thursday, according to executives with knowledge of the situation.

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Yahoo Looking to Sell HotJobs, Buy Xoopit

posted on July 22, 2009

yahoo-logoWith their Q2 results out—and better than expected—Yahoo seems to think they’re now in a prime position to review their holdings. In their portfolio, and on the chopping block: HotJobs and Yahoo Small Business. But Yahoo may also be looking to invest, most likely in Xoopit.

According to Reuters, Yahoo may be looking to divest itself of HotJobs, a job search website, as well as the division over Hot Jobs, Yahoo Small Business. YSB covers Yahoo! Domains, Yahoo! Web Hosting, Yahoo! Merchant Solutions, Yahoo! Business Email, and Yahoo! Store, which could net the company a big bonus. Yahoo has been looking to sell for 2-3 months in an effort to focus on its core business.

Meanwhile, Yahoo is rumored to be in the final stages of acquiring Xoopit for around $20M:

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AOL to Focus on Local Search?

posted on June 12, 2009

CNET announced today that AOL has purchased two local-oriented sites: Patch and Going.com. As CNET pointed out, the acquisition of Patch isn’t a big surprise, as newly appointed AOL CEO Tim Armstrong founded and invested in Patch while working as Google’s sales chief. Armstrong believes that “Local remains one of the most disaggregated experiences on the Web today—there’s a lot of information out there but simply no way for consumers to find it quickly and easily.”

He’s hoping that Going.com will give AOL another way to capitalize on that market. Going.com offers event and invitation services, along with ticketing and ways for locals to connect with one another. The goal of the acquisition is to build out AOL’s local services, but is it also insight into AOL’s new market strategy?

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Yahoo CEO Downplays Search, AOL Deal

posted on June 9, 2009

Over sixteen months after Microsoft’s first offer to Yahoo, many people in the tech world are still watching them, waiting with bated breath. Will they or won’t they? Although Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz has spent a lot of time lately downplaying the possibility, she stops short of saying there’s no possible deal with Microsoft in an interview with Fox Business (via paidContent) this week:


If you’re reading this via RSS and there’s no video, click through to view the video

Instead, she focuses on Yahoo’s strong properties that dominate their verticals—finance, sports, etc. She says that the social fragmentation of the has confused many users, and Yahoo is still a simple, centralized place for them to go for many different interest areas (not to mention email).

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Time Warner Approves AOL Spin Off

posted on May 29, 2009

Not so much a revelation, but more of tying-up a loose end. As expected, Time Warner’s board of directors have approved the spin-off of AOL–sans the dial-up division.

Time Warner hopes to conclude the spinoff, which requires an SEC review, by the end of the year. The company also expects to buy back Google’s 5 percent stake as part of completing this transaction but there is no confirmation that Google has agree to the terms or whether a agreed-upon valuation has taken place.

I’m sure AOL CEO Tim Armstrong is licking his chops at the news. Now we’ll get to see what he’s made of.

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Yahoo/Microsoft Talks Grow “Meaningful”

posted on May 5, 2009

Stacy (YHOO) gazed at the single white rose. The diamond tennis bracelet. The silver Porsche 911 997 GT2 topped by a red bow and an oversized tag reading “I’M SORRY.” She turned to Brad (MSFT). “Oh, Brad,” she gushed, a tear in her eye. “It’s all so . . . meaningful.”

“Yes, Stacy.” Brad smiled and pulled out his PDA. “It’s not a question of if, it’s a question of when.”

Yes, folks, we had to revive the award-winning* daytime drama*, the Young and the Profitless, for one last hurrah when sources tell BoomTown that talks between Yahoo and Microsoft have grown “meaningful.”

Last reported as “hot and heavy,” the merger talks between the two companies have continued to pick up. Another source says, like Brad, that it’s really not a question of if: “We’re finally talking about the how rather than the if.”

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Why Yahoo Should Just Say No

posted on April 27, 2009

As you can probably tell, I’ve always been kind of partial to Yahoo walking away from Microsoft’s overtures. I’ve seen what Microsoft has done so far online and despite the fact that their combined traffic might be the only entity that could keep Google from a total monopoly on the search market, I’m not convinced the alternative is much better for Yahoo. And now somebody else is there to back me up: Silicon Alley Insider.

The Insider’s Nicholas Carlson acknowledges that they’ve long said Yahoo should go for a Microsoft deal for three reasons:

  • Like Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, we believe that combining Yahoo’s bidders with Microsoft bidders for the same search keywords would drive up cost-per-click.