Microsoft Make Yahoo an Offer they Can't Refuse
The £22.6 Billion offer Microsoft has made for Yahoo is surely an offer the Yahoo board must accept. The search market is becoming more and more of a monopoly as Y!SM (Yahoo! Search Marketing) and Microsoft Adcenter fall further behind and Google takes the lions share of the traffic.
Google versus Microsoft has been a long standing battle across many platforms. This would be the only way Microsoft could really level the playing field in search.
The value of the offer is really showing how serious the offer is. A similar direct approach that Microsoft took when investing in Facebook. The offer to share holders is said to be a cash or shares offer. With recent performance of the Yahoo shares the offer is said to be 60% over the monetary value of the shares.
While the integration of the companies would take quite some time I imagine the decisions will not.
While some analysts don’t see how Y!SM and Microsoft can integrate effectively. In terms of marketing, the potential benefits could be huge. By combining forces, the new engine could provide a viable alternative to Google with a balance of respectable traffic volumes and platform and development team to take it forward. This kind of competition will provide a much healthier market for advertisers, as the current performance of Yahoo! Search Marketing and Microsoft Adcenter only provide extra traffic rather than viable alternatives.
