[Geno Prussakov]

Article in The Wall Street Journal today...

G.

[Adam Ward]

A deal between Microsoft and Yahoo would lift their combined share of the search advertising market to 27% against Google's 65%, the firms said.

[KGP]

wasnt a talk approx a year ago for microsoft intending to buy ebay? and they were not considering Yahoo cause ebay apart from its technology know how has a very good blend of subsidiaries

[Donuts]

50B is the number i heard is being kicked around...

what they really don't get is that G is beating them at monetizing - G's winning with both consumers and advertisers because of how they deliver ads, not how many they deliver. the volume comes from doing it well, not the other way around.

if M and Y join together and are still inferior at delivering ads, the long term results won't change.

i'm picturing retarded siamese twins battling kasparov in a chess match...

[FlyFisherman]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070504/...icrosoft_yahoo

Things could get interesting in the next few months. I wonder if there are any FTC hurdles with having just 2 major players in the Search World.

[Kevin]

Well said Donuts.

[Eathan]

Originally Posted by Donuts

i'm picturing retarded siamese twins battling kasparov in a chess match...

Is Yul Brynner there...?

[UncleScooter]

Originally Posted by Donuts

if M and Y join together and are still inferior at delivering ads, the long term results won't change.

That was my first thought. Two companies that just don't get it joining forces. So now they will have one BIG company that still doesn't get it.
You would think that with the money either Yahoo or MSN have, they would be able to keep up. It's not like G has that many more resources. It's all about being able and willing to change as the market develops. Y and M have remained in 2002 mode for too long and have gotten left far behind.

[adambha]

Microsoft is a software company, even if they try to enter new markets and change that perception.

Yahoo is a media company. Again, another generalization, but that is what they are.

So, they both do search. What other *potential* symbiosis would result?

Nothing that I'm seeing. Looks like M$ trying to *buy* search market share.

With Gates leaving in a few years, continued exploration (not growth!) into other markets, and a growing adoption of open source coupled with M$ animosity I could see this deviation from their core business (software, that is) becoming a disastrous failure.

I think the Siamese twins comment above was far too kind.

[Alan Hamilton]

I suspect M has done so poorly with their entry into PPC that they figured buying Y would be the shortcut?

Y has been in an increasingly noticeable tailspin the past three years, becoming less and less effective while they toot horns about their "new" improved user panel and traffic strategies. M, though being a higher percentage converter, has so little traffic that they don't offer much either.

I agree with the statements here implying that two partially blind SE's joining forces to propagate their joint non performance does little to excite experienced SE users. I can imagine the formal negotiation opening presentation:

"We at M are blind in the left eye (had to be the left eye and realizing that Y is efficiency blind in the right eye, we are convinced that by joining forces we can become 100% efficiency blind. No more half efficiency, now we can become fully blinded to what our problems are and what we need to do to fix them, and together we can support each other in our quest to convince the markets that we need to go back to 1996 technology, which we've had in place since 1998. Yes, through this merger, together, we can proudly announce to the world that we will be doubling our inefficiency immediately and as such that we will achieve our mutual goal of side-stepping the solutions that could capture a larger share of the market and return notable value to our advertisers. This is a proud day in the SE marketing world! Together we can make less happen and we can do it in half the time by joining forces." (roaring applause)

Of course, if the merger happens, I am hoping that perhaps the joined forces could actually pool resources and upgrade to a service that would actually compete with G. But I'm not inclined to think that will happen considering the lackluster offerings each has as a stand alone. But I'll keep hoping and stay cautiously optimistic.

[Eathan]

You know, it's really difficult to even attempt to comment on this. As a gold level advertiser on Yahoo for years, their latest interface changes have nearly driven me away for good. MSN's offer was so abysmal during the BETA that I never came back. Hell, their feedback form didn't even work!

I won't toot Google's horn, because I think they've fallen short quite a few times as well, but the idea of Yahoo and MS joining forces on PPC/search, without whatever magic safety net Google has that protects them from their more stupid technology efforts, I don't see much good coming out of it unless maybe they spun Overture off as a stand alone company with contracts with both Yahoo and MSN.

Overture didn't suck...

[simcat]

maybe not for a while at least

http://www.reuters.com/article/hotSt...17412820070504

[Joe Lilly]

Originally Posted by Donuts

i'm picturing retarded siamese twins battling kasparov in a chess match...

Next time you and I are in the same city, first beer's on me. Awesome.

[Vinny O'Hare]

I have been thinking this would be the next stop for these two companies but it reaks of the time warner aol deal to me.

Micro has lost its way and yahoo is just lost

[mrbshouse]

if MSN had even tried to use their beta offer, against that of adwords they would have seen how much harder they made it to spend money, and how many broken links they provided. Leave it to microsucks to put something out that is 1/2 done but damn at least check your error logs to find out what you need to fix! Both Y & G allow you to spend limitless cash based on a running ad, but M made you define what you wanted to spend..who is running the show there....i spent my ad "order" and planned to go back hoping they were going to fix things...have they?

Goggle, nice and simple easy to spend money on adwords, easy to make money on adsense...an innovator. MSN and Yahoo..who would lead who...broken leading the low ROI?

this should be interesting.

[MINDsprinter]

I just don't see the benfits of this merger...

Yahoo seems like they've had a good thing going with their publishing side of things (search, well, they already lost...)

And Microsoft never understood the Internet, and never really will. As others have said, a combination will just make one big loser to G, instead of two smaller losers...

[Trust]

Did anybody click the Reuters link is post #5?

Here's another

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/stor...332580EB040%7D

The merger talk is over but they still might be exploring other ways to work together.

[Donuts]

Originally Posted by Trust

they still might be exploring other ways to work together.

now, i'm picturing my retarded siamese twins playing tag... you're it... no, you're it... gotchya, you're it... mom, tweedle said i'm it...

wait, imagine the nightmare if the twins decided to take the "best" parts of panama stage 2 and msn adcenter beta 6 and combine them into one super powerful, all knowing ppc interface that also sucks...

where's ron popeil, maybe he could show them how to get it to julienne fries or something useful...