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According to the Wall Street Journal, Google is potentially interested in helping private equity firms buy a stake or all of Yahoo. The article says:
Google and prospective partners have held early-stage discussions but haven't put together a formal proposal and Google may end up not pursuing a bid, this person said. It is unclear which private-equity firms Google has talked to.
But at the same time, there are rumors of Microsoft also looking to buy Yahoo. Yes, these are the same types of rumors we had years ago, prior to Carol Bartz giving Yahoo away to Microsoft. But now, things may be different.
Yahoo's co-founder is also saying that Yahoo is not for sale - a lot of these rumors may be true or may be just out there to generate interest in larger bids for Yahoo.
Greg Sterling's take is that Yahoo is a pawn in all of this:
Any deal involving Google will be subject to close federal review. However that’s less likely with Microsoft in the scenario described above. Regardless of who winds of owning Yahoo, it will take vision and inspired leadership (not merely competent management) to reverse the long, slow decline that has taken hold at the company.
No one really can see Google being allowed to buy Yahoo but let's see what happens.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Comments:
SEO services UK
10/25/2011 06:28 pm
google must buy yahoo and all it's services like facebook even :)
Pak Hou Cheung
10/25/2011 08:51 pm
Up for sale, don't think so... http://t.co/t4LI8BCp
Mae Loraine Jacobs
10/28/2011 02:44 pm
I actually prefer Google over Microsoft, should Yahoo decides to sell its company. We have to face it, Google has proven itself to be really good in what it does, and most definitely Yahoo can benefit from Google's great marketing strategy and technical expertise. What I am wary of is monopoly. Fewer players mean fewer options and more control for the leaders in the field.
Nick Baldwin
11/09/2011 01:07 pm
It makes no sense that google should buy yahoo, people are looking for a search engine alternative to google surely. At least a different set of results would be nice, heaven forbid google not be returning the right results. Its gonna be microsoft, or a least stay independant of google.