Recent reports indicate that Microsoft are considering attempting to buy Yahoo. Last month the Yahoo board fired CEO Carol Bartz and are yet to find a suitable permanent replacement.
“Sources close to the situation” claim that “Microsoft joins a host of other companies looking at Yahoo, which has a market value of about $20 billion and is readying financial pitch books for potential buyers.” Some of the other companies that are rumoured to be interested are ; DST Global, Providence Equity Partners and Alibaba.
The Wall Street Journal reported that ““Microsoft could easily afford Yahoo. After a 10% stock price bump on a report that Microsoft was weighing a bid, Yahoo’s market capitalisation was about $21 billion, If Microsoft offered $20 a share, 25% above Wednesday’s close, the price would be about $26 billion. But the net cost could be less than half that, assuming Microsoft sold Yahoo’s Asian assets and factoring in its $2.6 billion of cash.”
A few years ago microsoft failed to secure a bid for Yahoo but did manage to form a “search alliance” which meant that the two companies would partner in search and advertising. Since then Bing have been powering Yahoo’s search results. The reported bid for Microsoft’s bid in 2008 was $44.6 billion.
In its most recent earnings report, Yahoo ranked in the top 3 in 23 categories and has nine out of the top ten original video programs on the net. Yahoo presents itself as a media company which is undoubtedly and area where Microsoft could afford to improve. Yahoo recently released a blog post informing users that it is ready for a “search fight”. The post included three bullet points detailing “what search looks like” to Yahoo over the next 18 months:
- From destination to companion: Access and convenience are two key components in the search game. In the next 18 months, Search will be a companion experience that gives you answers immediately and instantly without leaving the page you are on – effortlessly.
- From fragmented to seamless: Consistency and simplicity are two key components in the search game. Users are increasingly searching on multiple devices. In the next 18 months, your devices and platforms will be seamlessly connected, allowing you to start an experience on one device and continue effortlessly onto another, with simple access to any information on any other devices. Search will be evolving into a beautiful and consistent multi-modal experience that simply integrates into your everyday life.
- From more information to better information: Relevancy and depth are two key components in the search game. When you search for something — say, Adirondack chairs — do you really care that we returned 9,150,000 results? Probably not. In the next 18 months, Search will focus on a deep experience that gives you only what you want to know, taking into account your search history, click behaviour, demographics, social graph, and browsing history to provide you with a 1:1 experience. It will tell you why it served you the results it did and allow you to pivot on a number of aspects to further tune the page. It will no longer be a search engine designed for the masses, it will be a search engine tailored just for you. Some call it a results page; I call it an intent satisfaction experience.
According to Experian Hitwise, the U.S. search market report had Bing and Yahoo up last month with 28.99% of the market covered by Bing-powered searches.
Yahoo recently shared this statement to remind people just how powerful they are.: http://www.yadvertisingblog.com/blog/2011/06/08/what-is-yahoo-and-where-is-it-going
