“Global giants including Apple and Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp are believed to be considering rival bids for the internet company Yahoo, which has received a $44.6bn (£22.6bn) offer from Microsoft,” Nathalie Thomas reports for The Scotsman.
“The conglomerate InterActiveCorp was another company named as a potential bidder for Yahoo, which is said to be unwilling to give in to Microsoft without a fight,” Thomas reports.
“After Microsoft’s chief executive Steve Ballmer made the offer in a letter on Thursday, it emerged that Yahoo had rejected a similar takeover attempt by Ballmer’s organisation a year before,” Thomas reports.
“Yahoo chief executive and co-founder Jerry Yang is understood not to be Microsoft’s greatest fan, and would be prepared to line up another ‘white knight’ rather than concede to Ballmer,” Thomas reports.
“It is believed he would be particularly open to a rescue bid from Steve Jobs’ Apple Corp, having openly expressed his admiration for the firm in the past,” Thomas reports. “Yang last year invited Jobs to Yahoo’s headquarters in Sunnyvale to give a motivational talk to staff.”
Thomas reports, “Recent figures show that Google dominates 66% of the global web search market. Yahoo and Microsoft are leagues behind with just 13% and 4% of the market respectively.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Judge Bork” for the heads up.]
Other than thwarting Ballmer I don’t see this as a good investment for Apple.
Why would Apple buy Yahoo? It would ruin their relationship with Google.
BUY ADOBE INSTEAD
Ridiculous. There’s no Yin for this Yang.
I agree with spark, I cannot see anything good come from this. If anyone else sees something I do not, please let me know.
I don’t think Apple has any use for Yahoo.
MDN word: dead
i.e.: Yahoo is dead.
I could have sworn Google already owned Yahoo. Didn’t they buy them last year?
Why?????!!! They should go for Adobe instead.
Yahoo HASN\’T BEEN a Mac users friend!
For instance, they don\’t want to support Safari with their online email.
For a long time their games were \”IE\” only even when M$ discontinued IE for the Mac.
So Yahoo is very \”Microsoftic\” with their web sites.
However they have been getting better slightly.
Still, they need to support Safari and quit trying to get us to download some crap browser.
And their games to to be Javascript so it works in all browsers instead of only Microsoft\’s crap.
BUY ME A FOOTBALL TEAM!!!
Sure thing, right after buying Adobe and Sony.
Anyway Apple doesn\’t have that much cash on hand anyway.
But Google does, but this M$ offer only has to do with Google bidding on the 700Mhz spectrum from the Feds.
So it\’s big boy games and if M$ buys Yahoo, guaranteed people will RUN AWAY!!
This is utter bullshit.
Apple will NEVER, EVER buy Yahoo! These tech journalists are total asshats.
“Yapple” / “Appoo” ?
Am I the only one here who thinks this has serious potentials. Adobe is a software company that already makes products (willingly or not) for Apple (being that about 90+% of professional photographers are mac based, and then there are graphics designers, publishers etc.), besides which, Apple already makes a few products that can thwart Adobe should Adobe pull a stunt like they did in the early migration days of OSX. Besides, it is foreseeable, that Apple can actually one day start developing Adobe C$3 and M$ Office like programs for its platform by buying out unknown international companies that develop something similar (i.e. openOffice like).
But Adobe as it stands, is overpriced for what it offers. Why inherit a company that can offer a buggy interface for a bloated price (just because of a perceived user base) where you can replace it with better and tighter Applesque solutions?
‘Partnering’ with Yahoo, however, opens up a completely different dimension for Apple. An instant foothold into the lucrative market of Web, Portals, Search, Auctions, and millions of email customers. Apple can then integrate their future mobile experience with this, where Google’s Android will not be able to compete such a tighter integration of uniformity between the next-gen handhelds and portal servers.
Long story short, Apple should move aggressively on this.
“MDN Magic Word” – move.
@ deepdish: “BUY ADOBE INSTEAD”
How ’bout Adobe AND Sony, both talked about for purchase on MDN previously?
There’s no way Apple would buy Yahoo. Let Microsoft buy Yahoo. I don’t think having Yahoo will help Microsoft significantly. I don’t use any Yahoo services, so it won’t affect me in any way. Microsoft apparently needs something new (another Zune) to distract its corporate mind from the mounting Windows fiasco. In ten years, if Microsoft does not focus on its cash cow Windows, it won’t have the financial resources to do stuff like spending 44 billion on buying Yahoo.
This is silly. Apple’s future depends on making better computers, better OS to run them, and better software to make them productive. If Apple bought Yahoo, it would become an internet company handing over the tiny remnant of it’s personal computer market share to Ballmer and Co. – something even a Steve Jobs size ego should resist.
It would make more sense for News Corp. to buy Yahoo than Apple.
Buy me a pony!
Ah yes, rumors are beautiful things.
But it isn’t going to happen for Apple – Too much cash for an investment that won’t do much for Apple. I hope MS does not get it, but if they do who cares, it’ll just spur on the potential of Google and Apple starting to spend the night together rather than just going out on dates, and if that happens I don’t think there will be much real competition in the online-search world for quite some time.
I’d believe Apple getting Adobe before I’d believe Apple getting Yahoo, and I don’t see either one happening in the foreseeable future.
“Global giants… are believed to be…”
“Yahoo, which is said to be unwilling…”
“it emerged that Yahoo…”
” Jerry Yang is understood not to be Microsoft’s greatest fan…”
“”It is believed he would be particularly open…”
It has emerged that there is said to be speculation in some circles that this is believed to be a news item.
4 billion for Yahoo!?
No thanks.
10 billion for bloatware-maker Adobe?
double no thanks.
Clearly, this journo is just making stuff up as they shift from “Apple and News Corp are believed to be considering rival bids for Yahoo” to “It is believed Yang would be particularly open to a rescue bid from Apple.”
Also, who is Apple Corp.?
Not gonna happen, would be funny tho… now Google buying Yshoo thast another story….
I dont see the governemnt being willing to let that go thru tho…
now Apple doing it for Google to spite MS… that I can see…