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December 11, 2008
Yahoo Shareholder Wants Search Sold to Microsoft
Ivory Investment Management LP is calling for Yahoo to sell its search to Microsoft. Ivory owns 1.5% of Yahoo shares.
Ivory is smart to call for only selling search to Microsoft, as Steve Ballmer has repeatedly made clear that he's no longer interested in buying the whole enchilada.
However, Microsoft has already snagged two Yahoo acquisitions in the form of executives who know a thing or two about search. Is there any incentive left for Microsoft to return to its scorned lover for another negotiation?
Tell me your thoughts in the comments.
Posted by Nathania Johnson on December 11, 2008 12:32 PM
Comments
The Yahoo! investors screwed the pooch when they failed to back Jerry Yang's bid to keep Yahoo! an independent entity.
Since Google's real market share is considerably less than 50% (market share based on queries performed is misleading), Yahoo! had a significant position from which it could have leveraged search growth.
But to be honest, Yahoo! hasn't really ever taken search seriously. They are built to be a media service with a search engine. They just happened to have the third most popular search destination in 2008 after Google and Microsoft.
Yahoo!'s search engine will probably be marginalized by the end of 2009, just as so many others have before it (including the once-dominant Altavista, which Yahoo! now owns and maintains as a separate but barely noticeable brand).
Since Yahoo!'s search star is now fading, people need to look beyond Microsoft to see who will become the next contender. It's not yet clear that Microsoft is ready to topple Google from the top of search, but they are much closer to doing so than the bogus statistics from Compete, comScore, Hitwise, and Nielsen suggest.
Michael Martinez December 11, 2008 1:13 PM
I'm wondering if Microsoft succeeds in taking over Yahoo's search business, if that opens the door for Google to go after their display business?
Eric Pender December 11, 2008 1:56 PM
