Yahoo isn’t Microsoft’s Property, yet!

With many people already mulling over what a Microsoft buyout of Yahoo! would mean for consumers, it may be easy to forget that the deal hasn’t yet been signed in ink. In fact, Yahoo! has yet to decide how it’s going to respond to Microsoft’s offer and is apparently also considering other strategic alternatives.  This might, however,  just be some standard formality to appease the shareholders.

There was a time when Yahoo! melting into Microsoft seemed laughable. After all, they were two different companies with two different cultures and two different visions. Now with everyone chasing Google, many are proclaiming that this deal makes a lot of sense. Google currently has such a huge lead in search that it dwarfs Microsoft and Yahoo! put together. But is there any reason to think that Microsoft and Yahoo! can accomplish together what they weren’t able to accomplish on their own?

One interesting aspect to this deal, however, are the reasons underlying Microsofts offer. Does Microsoft really feel that this offer to purchase Yahoo! will really “synergize” the company and lead to some great new products and/or services? Does it geniunely feel that a Microsoft/Yahoo! combo can give Google a run for its money? Or, is Microsoft, which is lagging severely behind Google, completely out of ideas. Is buying Yahoo! a hail-mary attempt by Microsoft to catch up with a company that it can’t compete with otherwise? Microsoft has a history of trying to catch up to where the competition IS, instead of focusing on where an particular industry is headed for in the future. I would hope that a Microsoft-Yahoo! deal, should it go through, would result in innovative and original ideas that range beyond simple re-branding.

Yoni is a business / tax attorney from the windy city. Yoni is also a gadget enthusiast who enjoys writing in the third person.
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