Not good for Yang, you would have thought he knew what Microsoft would say if he opened his big mouth.

Ballmer and Yang are both big time losers in IT search, advertising and videos when looking at all the huge chances they have had once upon a time.

From the article...

When discussing the failed takeover, which, if successful, would have been one of the biggest takeovers in IT history, Ballmer said: "They turned us down at $33 a share; move on."

And of course this comment from Mr. Yang...

"I believe the best thing for Microsoft to do is to buy Yahoo,"

And this...

At the time of writing, Yahoo's share price was $13.85

$33.00 - $13.85 = $19.15

I know there were many who were predicting the stock market crash but I'm sure Yahoo! couldn't have predicted something like this.

Someone, some group(s), put a lot of pressure on the Government to stop this and it worked. Google finally gave in to the mounting litigation costs. And with their current financial situation, dragging this on any further just isn't worth it.

So what happens to Yahoo! now? Based on statistics, they are losing a fractional percentage of search to Google each and every month. The ball is rolling and I see that loss continuing. Three years of history proves it. Same with Microsoft and Ask. They are all losing to Google. All G have to do is sit back and let nature takes its course which has been happening anyway.

If I were Microsoft, I'd wait until Yahoo! was about to file for BK at which time I'd offer a small fraction of what the company is worth. It would cover their BK obligations and then give MS the second slot in search.

Yahoo! is in no position to negotiate anything right now other than a buyout with someone. Maybe Ask? That might make MS change their mind. There ya go Mr. Yang, start negotiations with Ask and watch what happens. MS surely don't want to be in that last position. ;)

Ballmer is right. Yang made VERY clear that they did not want to be acquired by Microsoft. Not even at $33. Ballmer realized that the integration of Yahoo! into Microsoft just would not work out. Again, Yang confirmed this.

So why is Yang now begging to be acquired by Microsoft? Does not make sense to Ballmer. And it does not make sense to me. The only one who might benefit from this is - Yang.

The thread "Yahoo tells Microsoft: 'Buy us'" got me a bit concerned. However this thread has given me a bit of relief.

Being a Yahoo advertiser for years I do not want any of these:

1. MSN buying Yahoo.
2. Google buying Yahoo.
3. Anyone buying Yahoo.
4. Google having an Ad sharing deal with Yahoo.

Though I would love to listen, “Yahoo having an ad deal with MSN/Google where MSN/Google will show ads of Yahoo” - and NOT vice-versa.

DilipShaw

[edited by: DilipShaw at 1:07 pm (utc) on Nov. 7, 2008]

Why should Ballmer make a bid now? They are in much better position to let yahoo get even cheaper since the ad market is going to get worse over the next few months. I would wait till yahoo gets into the single digits then make a low ball bid.

Yahoo was moronic for not taking the 33 bucks.

A textbook case to go down in the history books.

>> $33.00 - $13.85 = $19.15

Ballmer will rethink at $5.00. Personally, as much as I think Yahoo did a good job, its geo-targetting is HORRIBLE. In this day and age, why do I still see ads in Hong Kong for miami real estate agents and stock brokers who do not service my part of the world.

Yahoo HK and China, thanks to a crappy Alibaba deal are eons behind the rest of the world, even though they have market share.

Yahoo was moronic for not taking the 33 bucks.

Ironically, there's no explanation to argue with this.

In this day and age, why do I still see ads in Hong Kong for miami real estate agents and stock brokers who do not service my part of the world.

Their advertisements are of course irrelevant, fillers, both for advertisers and audience.

Ballmer is loving this. They got slammed by Y! and they don't like it, they make $15+ Billion each year, own the PC market so this is them showing who the real boss is (the one with cash in bank accounts). Laughs best he who laughs last.

Watch them buy the search for peanuts and serve ads on Yahoo as well. Y! will be left as a barely growing skeleton company. How much can you grow when you have all those users? Spending $50 billion when all they really wanted was the search was insane anyway.

I don't understand why Yahoo doesn't try to reinvent their image, and for starters, give a Lite version of their site (I stopped going there mainly because of slow page loading times).

Yahoo needs to stop whining and crying, get off their ass, and start fixing their company from the ground up.

Wonder if G is interested... of course Microsoft's lobbyists would probably not allow that... THEY can buy Y, but they don't want to... but no one else can... ;-)

The biz is a bit more complex, to my view... Google wanted to drive up the cost of Y to make it difficult for M$ to acquire, then courted insincerely to partner, then dumped, particularly after the market crash, to put Y in the do or die situation... with die pretty much on the board. Big money moves in mysterious (NOT) ways...

I don't understand why Yahoo doesn't try to reinvent their image, and for starters, give a Lite version of their site (I stopped going there mainly because of slow page loading times).

Stoutfiles

This is as lite as Google's default home page:

[search.yahoo.com...]

I only go to the "regular" Yahoo page when I want financial info, news, get to a group, etc..

I'd wait until Yahoo! was about to file for BK

With respect, where is there any evidence to support the idea that this will ever happen?

Yahoo is making nice profits in a very messy economy.

You could take search completely out of the picture and Yahoo would still be in a position to make a profit. Everyone catch that? Yahoo isn't just search.

I know saying anything positive about Yahoo isn't popular on WW at the moment but someone has to do it :-)

Yahoo is in absolutely no apparent danger of going under. Their stock price is in bad shape but people seem to be conveniently failing to take into consideration that everyone's stock prices are down at the moment.

Maybe Yahoo will never get back to $30+/share but that won't mean they're not a viable company.

And Yahoo staying independent is good for search.

Lets be honest, what would have happened to Yahoo's share of the search market with MS running it? It would have declined far faster than it currently is.

And don't forget [my.yahoo.com...] which is as light or heavy as you want it to be.

I like the Lite version...why is that not the default? The normal Yahoo is a slow-loading cluster bomb of information.

Sounds to me like Yang is getting tired. Retirement to Bali with a nice severence is what he's looking to do I think.

It's like that, in a way with this outfit here. The old man isn't interested in having anyone replace him directly ... he would instead rather, sell out, or allow it to fail.

Yang just needs to step down and let another run the show. He can sign away all rights to the company he helped to create, collect his severence and big bonuses, and just flat walk away.

>> Sounds to me like Yang is getting tired. Retirement to Bali with a nice severence is what he's looking to do I think.

even if he loses all of Y! stock he probably has at least $100 million somewhere so severance is not the issue, legacy is (or was)

You could take search completely out of the picture and Yahoo would still be in a position to make a profit. Everyone catch that? Yahoo isn't just search.

I don't follow yahoo as a company, but if what you're saying is so, then you're correct - it's very telling. Conversely if you take search out of Google you end up with a company worth the value of some server farms.

Google makes an awful pile of money, but they've got only one source of revenue. And while the probability of them losing that source is low, the consequences are severe - they lose everything if search traffic goes somewhere else. Nice to know that Yahoo isn't in that position. I don't know diddly about stocks, but seems to me that that should make Yahoo stock somehow better than Google stock.

I'm not so sure Google was trying to douche Yahoo, I was thinking in the course of their negotiations they realized Yahoo was on their way out and said...No Thanks!

Yahoo might be better to stick with what makes them money and keep it simple and profitable these days. Search may not be worth it now. Stick with organized content, mail, services, etc. Go back and stress a real good directory maybe? Although I don't think people like using that format any longer however. It would have to be really good.

I guess a bad day for Yahoo, stock price tanking, msn walking away, google walking away and no one else interested or with pockets deep enough - but things will level off for them.

Yang and Balmer are as stubbon and stupid as each other if you ask me - both sides would benefit from a merger of search

On the brighter side, what a great day for webmasters, we need as many different search players in the market to keep both costs down and spread our risks. Google has a big enough share of the market anyway and i for one am glad that Yahoo remain independent for now.

Richie

For all you know, Ballmer is a very smart man. He might just be preparing the ground before acquiring Yahoo. Reject them first, show them their place and command the terms to his advantage when Yang has sufficiently mellowed down. Any wagers on MS buying Yahoo eventually?

[edited by: McMohan at 5:49 am (utc) on Nov. 8, 2008]

I don't think Ballmer is going to flip around on this one and buy Yahoo. But the door is still open for search - which is all he really wanted anyway.

Ballmer played his cards very well - Google now has no chance to even buy almost any part of Yahoo due to fear of anti-monopolistic investigation which may happen regardless but they would not want to give any excuse for it. So now Young can drive company further into the ground and Microsoft will outbid anyone when buying the pieces they want (search).

Ballmer was clearly relieved when Yahoo stupidly rejected their last high offer, now he will pay at least 3-4 times less.

Stock prices and investors aside, does anyone see any benefit from a YHOO/MSFT merger/acquisition?

Would you rather have 2 main places to search for information or 3/4 depending on what is considered "main".

MSFT doesn't seem to be going anywhere with search, Yahoo! isn't rolling out anything new. They've have to either integrate or manage 2 different tech infrastructures and company cultures. How would it possibly work and how would it benefit anyone except maybe someone brokering the transation of getting a pop in the stock price if it were to happen?

Smells a little like 2000 and 2001 to me with the stock market. Great thing here is, who's going to come out on top. I think Yahoo is still a very innovative company, and can eventually monetize that traffic and mobile. The question is: how soon?

does anyone see any benefit from a YHOO/MSFT merger/acquisition?

Not me. Putting aside the quick cashout for shareholders there would have been no value in the takeover. I think ultimately it would have increased Google's dominance.