Is Yahoo for Sale?

February 1st, 2008 MSN put in a bid to purchase Yahoo for a sum of $44.6 Billion. It amazes me that a company with so few touchable assets can attain such a value. Non the less, this bid by Microsoft has made quite a stir in more than one arena.

UPDATE: February 11, 2008, Yahoo formally rejects Microsoft's bid... for now ..

UPDATE: June 12, 2008, "Yahoo has ended its talks with Microsoft and is instead nearing an agreement with Google. Yahoo's purported reason for breaking off the talks? That Microsoft was only interested in purchasing Yahoo's search business, not all of the company. 'Such a transaction would not be consistent with the company's view of the converging search and display marketplaces, would leave the company without an independent search business that it views as critical to its strategic future and would not be in the best interests of Yahoo stockholders,' the company said in a statement. The deal with Google allegedly involves Yahoo's search advertising business. The move likely will draw more ire from Icahn and may in fact remain part of the elaborate poker game between the two companies. Microsoft said this alternative transaction remains on the table and did not confirm that talks between it and Yahoo have concluded." 

This purchace of Yahoo is nothing new as Microsoft has been interested in Yahoo since the days of Inktomi, now owned by Yahoo, whom MSN purchased its Pay-Per-Click (PPC) results from before starting its own PPC program.

Of course any such bid, even if accepted, has to be approved by federal regulatory commissions and such which would undoubtedly last for the remainder of the first decade of 2008 and maybe longer.

This is the fun part; guessing as to why Microsoft would be interested in this purchase, what they would do with Yahoo's resources if approved and how this will affect the industry as a whole. No sense even guessing as the time frame to fruition is too great and could be impacted by any number of situations. But, this has not stopped others from making headlines with their guesses and it certainly will not stop me from quoting these individuals.

The day after the initial announcement, the New York Times is quoted as saying, "'This shows just how worried Microsoft is by Google,' said David B. Yoffie, a professor at the Harvard Business School. 'Microsoft has faced competitive threats before, but none with the size, strength, profitability and momentum of Google.'"  It is no secret that Microsoft has thrown billions of dollars into MSN and as yet to see a return.

Reuters then followed up with this tidbit, "Yahoo Inc would consider a business alliance with Google Inc as one way to rebuff a $44.6 billion takeover proposal by Microsoft..."  I personally do not see the Feds allowing Google, who currently accounts for over half of the Internet searches being made, to purchase the second largest search company; that would be a monopoly... or at least could be considered as such...

Slashdot, my personal favorite "News for Nerds" and "Stuff that Matters" has their own, "Google And Microsoft Cross Swords Over Yahoo! " quoting three additional stories putting Google in a bad light over Microsoft's bid.

I wish that I could see into the future as Yahoo's takeover will be ground breaking for whoever wins or loses this bid. Whatever happens, we can be sure that the headlines will remain interesting.