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In an unexpected move this morning, Microsoft has made a $44.6 billion move to acquire Yahoo. Needless to say, it has come as a shock to everyone.
What's in store? We're not sure, but we hope it's good.
I thought this was coming... especially after Bill Gates kind of hinted for something big to happen on CNBC the other day.I just hope they keep Yahoo's properties under the Yahoo name but put in Live search.
And others are seeing the promise of fewer major search engines to worry about in SEO:
So in the future only two search engines to optimize for..... :)
Some people already saw it coming.
Yes, I predicted this sometime ago when the rumour mills were working overtime. This is only natural and the only way to counter Google. Combining the resources of MSFT and YHOO, they may be able to create a stronger search brand. Yahoo will almost certainly need to accept.
All I have to say is wow. It'll be interesting to see if any other companies step up to bid for Yahoo in the interim. This is the news to watch this month.
Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld, DigitalPoint Forums, HighRankings Forum, and Sphinn (hi Danny!).
Comments:
Ike
02/01/2008 02:45 pm
I was hoping to see more competition not less. MS will make Yahoo even less cool. I think this is a very bad piece of news for the search industry. We need a genuine counterbalance to big G and this will not be it.
Andrew
02/01/2008 03:10 pm
Unexpected? I guess the timing was, but we've known for a while that MSFT has been approaching Yahoo about an acquisition.
Aaron
02/01/2008 03:25 pm
Your headline is a little misleading. "To Buy" and "Offer to Buy" are quite different. Nothing has been agreed to yet.
Cristina Mailat
02/01/2008 04:27 pm
If the deal is closing then this is possible to be the only hope for MS and Yahoo to try to meet the 2008 expectations and to get closer to Google. But let's not forget: 1. The announcement is made with 3 day after Yahoo! reported the fourth quarter and full year 2007 financial results: http://yhoo.client.shareholder.com/common/download/download.cfm?CompanyID=YHOO&FileID=163792&FileKey=d27edf0c-7cd0-476c-9929-2eac03454c6f&FileName=163792.pdf 2. Infact Yahoo had a drastic decrease in share of searches in 2007: http://www.submitsuite.com/blog/search-engine-trends-and-share-of-searches-in-2007-91
vik
02/02/2008 02:06 am
After the news today would one say that right now over the weekend before stock market opens Monday would it be a good time to buy yahoo stock? Await your intresting reply's Thanks