“Google Inc. Chief Executive Eric Schmidt called Yahoo Inc. CEO Jerry Yang to offer his company’s help in any effort to thwart Microsoft Corp.’s unsolicited $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo, say people familiar with the matter,” Kevin J. Delaney and Matthew Karnitschnig report for The Wall Street Journal.
“The approach Friday from Google — Microsoft’s chief rival on the Internet — came as Yahoo is assessing its options for responding to Microsoft’s aggressive ‘bear hug’ bid, which has sent aftershocks through the media and technology industries since its announcement three days ago. People familiar with the matter say Yahoo’s board, which conferred by telephone Friday, hasn’t taken a position so far and no rival bids have emerged yet, though it remains possible some will,” Delaney and Karnitschnig report.
“It is considered unlikely that Google would itself bid for Yahoo because of regulatory concerns related to their large shares of the search and online advertising markets. But the people familiar with the matter say Google could play a role in attempts by others to outbid Microsoft, or by Yahoo to remain independent. Google could potentially offer money, or guaranteed revenue in return for a Yahoo advertising outsourcing pact, under that scenario, say people familiar with the matter. Even such involvement by Google would likely attract antitrust scrutiny because of concerns that competition between the two Silicon Valley Internet companies could be reduced,” Delaney and Karnitschnig report.
Delaney and Karnitschnig report, “Google Senior Vice President David Drummond in a blog post asked whether Microsoft could ‘now attempt to exert the same sort of inappropriate and illegal influence over the Internet that it did with the PC.’ Mr. Drummond accused Microsoft, which has been targeted by antitrust regulators in the U.S. and Europe for years, of ‘frequently [seeking] to establish proprietary monopolies — and then [leveraging] its dominance into new, adjacent markets.'”
Delaney and Karnitschnig report, “While Google and Yahoo are intense rivals in those areas, they share deep roots in Silicon Valley, whereas Microsoft is a plane ride away in Redmond, Wash. Mr. Yang, a Yahoo cofounder, has been opposed to a sale to Microsoft in the past, and some at Google believe it should try to help, say people familiar with the matter.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “eugene” for the heads up.]
Here is some help:Offer 45 billion
“…say people familiar with the matter.”
That phrase drives me crazy. If you can’t get a attributable quote, find another source. He said, she said should have no place in responsible journalism. Just my $0.02 on that.
In regards to this who Microhoo deal, I really hope it doesn’t happen. Even if it does, it probably won’t matter much. I can see the nightmarish integration scenario now considering Yahoo has been making it a point to build out their technologies utilizing tools that do not come from or run on Microsoft software.
As long as those running Vista and the future Win7 don’t mind being forced to use Yahoo! Search, and that the search results always seem to find Microsoft products and services, there’s no problem.
I admit that I’m baffled by the support for this takeover (expressed on other websites) being seen as “Good for competition”.
Since when is the ELIMINATION of a competitor (Yahoo!) defined as “benefitting” competition?
There are currently THREE big players in that market.
If Microsoft BUYS OUT Yahoo!, then there will be only TWO.
I’m tellin’ ya, you guys ought to read the rubbish posts over at C|Net that support this idea!
If Micros**t buys Yahoo, my accounts will be cancelled and set up on Google.
I run a Micros**t free business. Period.
Yahoo hasn’t really been all that friendly to us Mac users, anyone familiar with the site can tell you.
1: Games and features required IE only
2: Yahoo presently doesn’t fully support Safari and attempting to subsitute it’s own browser instead.
So Yahoo has been displaying itself in the “Microsoft only camp” for quite some time, thus the bids from Redmond.
Glad Google is stepping in because it seems like nearly everyone in command at Yahoo is a Microsoft shrill.
I’m a big Google fan. However, in the last year or two, people increasingly have disagreed with Google whose mission statement is to “Do no evil.”
If MS buys Yahoo! it just makes Google much more of the good guy.
You guys are so funny and hypocritical. Let’s suppose for an instant that it was Apple buying Yahoo! and Google throwing the dish on an Apple-Yahoo! deal. If that were the case, you guys would all be calling this for what it is: FUD. Clear and simply, this is a sad and pathetic attempt by Google stemming from fear of a Microsoft-Yahoo! combination.
But alas, since it’s Microsoft we’re talking about, you guys think that Google speaks the truth. Give me a break…
I would like Yahoo to stay an independent company. Yahoo isn’t so doomed that it needs to be taken over, especially by a company who will doom it further.
And @Jordan completely and intentionally goes out of his way to miss the point.
The ELIMINATION of competition is a BAD THING.
Jordan – you’re right that people who post here automatically assume Microsoft’s motives are inherently bad.
I think that comes from watching Microsoft build a reputation over the years as a company that almost always has bad motives.
“Jordan – you’re right that people who post here automatically assume Microsoft’s motives are inherently bad.”
Shhyeahh- take a chair in the face a few times and you’ll start thinking the same thing!
Jordan, that’s a nice straw man you got there.
Buying Yahoo is exactly the kind of thing Apple would NOT do.
When Apple makes forays into new markets it does so slowly with measured steps, not leaping in with it’s eyes closed shouting “HOPE THIS WORKS!”
Microsoft has an ad-based search engine… it sucks. A Yahoo purchase (especially a failed one) can only damage MS’ reputation further as it will be seen as a sign that MS has no confidence in it’s own product.
However, were Apple to attempt this I would heap as much derision on it as I could because it is a bad idea all around.
Let’s try this math:
Company 1 is clueless about being successful in Internet Advertising and On-line search presence. Also, clueless about creating useable, functional software.
Company 2 is imploding because they are becoming clueless about being successful in Internet Advertising and On-line search presence. Clueless about creating useable, functional software.
Company 1 proposes to buy Company 2 to enhance/strengthen their clueless expertise.
Now that’s what I call a match made in Cyber-heaven.
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@Sixvodkas
By your logic, a lot of M&As;are a “BAD THING” because a company is eliminated. Whatever dude.
@Anim8me2
I’m glad to see you completely missed my point. It wasn’t that you guys would love Apple buying Yahoo!, it was that whenever anyone talks bad about Apple, MDN and it’s readers construe it as FUD. But when someone talks bad about Microsoft, it’s talked about as being the word of Lord Jobs’s gospel.
And man, I just realized there are more Apple product photos on these pages than there are on the Apple website. Give me a break…
Microhoo! is a wonderful deal, as it will be a quagmire for MS. Google, if the rumor is true, would be stupid to stop the takeover. This is Time Warner buying AOL. This is Daimler buying Chrysler. This is the Titanic hitting the iceberg. Go Microhoo!
Like a cancer…it spreads and spreads until…. But hey, take the money and run if you can run, Jerry. And send me a quarter-point for the advice. Hao ma?
Man, MS can’t spend, say $35 billion and come up with something better than Yahoo? Wow! Just Wow!
I have to agree with “It’s About Time” this acquisition could actually kill MS faster than anything else.
Reminds me of the famous last words of the redneck, “Watch this!”
Google, if the rumor is true, would be stupid to stop the takeover.
But not stupid trying to drive up the price. This will be a lovely thing to watch for the next few years.
I don’t Yahoo, am not a Yahoo and think it is the most ignorant name for a company ever. I don’t do Microsoftopoly, either.
If M$ wants to piss away a truckload of money on a highly overvalued, steaming pile of excrement- I’m all for it. That way the Yahoos go away, MS gets ripped off and that’s money they can’t use to hurt other companies.
Google is big enough to take care of itself.
Jordan ,
That statement is incorrect. Google is far better than Yahoo and MSN combined. Why should Google fear either? This will hurt competition, as the only reason Microsoft is doing this so they don’t have to compete with Google AND Yahoo. Consumers will suffer.
The reason Microsoft wants to buy yahoo is because of Skype, a VoIP technology whch is currently used by yahoo. If microsoft does this, then they will be able to offer cell phone service for very low cost, putting every other phone company out of business. You people are too quick to believe that bill gates is stupid enough to blow $45 billon on a search engine. You don’t get rich by being stupid.
I have to agree that the M$ / Yahoo deal as not good. I use to be in to PCs & M$ products most of my technical career but I switch to Mac’s last year. I also switched my business platform which some are still converting and developing new Mac based business software, but since the move to Macs my business runs smoother, networks are solid. etc. No more crashing and no more spyware/viruses, no more blue screens of death, etc. But now if Yahoo is going to have the M$ brand on its ass imagine the bull we are about to witness. Their probably going to make people pay outrageous license fees just to be listed as they do with their buggy software.
@ Jordan–
If Apple were to bid on Yahoo, it would be a completely different scenario, simply because, for the most part, they are not currently competitors.
Response.
Microsoft offering something at very low cost? Ha. Since when? A more life scenario is to corner the market, either by purchasing it’s competition or by unlawfully embedding software into their OS that kills off competitors. Regardless of what comes with the Yahoo purchase, One target is better than two.
Since when was Skype any good? Why pay 45 billion for it? Surely Microsoft could develop their own service for far less than 45 billion. Unless, of course the name Skype is worth 45 billion.
This is not a good deal, as I said last time Consumers will hurt in the end.
I have no bias against Microsoft. I’m a big fan of Windows XP and I also own a Mac book, several PowerPc’s and my server environment is Linux. Love for all, but I know a bad deal when I see it.