• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Anshublog: The Stack Fallacy

Strategy, SaaS, Entrepreneurship and VC

Hide Search

Private+Equity

The Yahoo? question: Will Microsoft buy them?

admin · December 6, 2006 · Leave a Comment

Yes, Yahoo! has gone from an exciting successful brand for consumers and employees to Yahoo?, a me-too player with more questions about its future than answers. And the question of Microsoft buying them keeps popping up.

Here are the reasons Micrsoft is not likely to buy Yahoo!
-Microsoft acquistion strategy and history shows that they look for small teams with exciting new technology. Yahoo has neither of those qualities. It is an ageing gorilla.
-Microsoft does not buy market share. They didn’t do it during the dot-com when they could have bought out several small dot-com companies with ‘eyeballs’. In fact, Google belongs to this camp too except with their recent purchase of YouTube where they basically paid for marketshare.
-Microsoft likes to have majority of its core development done at Redmond and very few other development centers. Yahoo cannot be absorbed in this manner. Although this is not a very big issue.
-Microsoft thinks they can beat Yahoo. And give them enough time and enough releases, and they probably could.

So, what does it mean for Yahoo!? Well, they could be sought out by media giants (unlikely given the whole AOL fiasco), telecom giants (unlikely given their reluctance to spend billions on ‘content’ companies) or private equity (unlikely given that Yahoo is not yet a cash cow, although you could turn it into one by shutting down all properties except profit making ones like search, mail and then use Google’s ad syndicate to generate revenue).

The truth is that Yahoo! is a good business showing steady growth and generating cash flow. If there were no Google, investors would be satisfied and happy. This is a situation where Yahoo! looks bad in comparison although it has done a fairly good job- look where the other portals like AOL, Excite, etc. have gone.

(As always, the opinions expressed here are entirely personal.)

Primary Sidebar

Recent Posts

  • Don’t Repeat the Benioff Mistake
  • Go forth and multiply — your apps.
  • Amazon: The Company with a 100 CEOs Cannot Be Stopped
  • Engineer’s Guide to Picking an Early Stage Startup
  • Riding with Nutanix from Day Zero

Recent Comments

  • Semusi on When Free is Not Really Free
  • Soren Lanng on Death of Native Apps on PC: Trillion Dollar Transfer from Microsoft to Apple
  • hipy on How do I find a co-Founder?
  • Unknown on Looking for an Illiterate Maid in India on Facebook Lite
  • Unknown on How do I find a co-Founder?

Archives

  • March 2020
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • April 2017
  • September 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • May 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • October 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • July 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • March 2012
  • December 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • April 2010
  • February 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • July 2009
  • April 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
  • November 2008
  • October 2008
  • September 2008
  • August 2008
  • July 2008
  • June 2008
  • May 2008
  • April 2008
  • March 2008
  • February 2008
  • January 2008
  • December 2007
  • November 2007
  • October 2007
  • September 2007
  • August 2007
  • July 2007
  • June 2007
  • May 2007
  • April 2007
  • March 2007
  • February 2007
  • January 2007
  • December 2006
  • November 2006
  • October 2006
  • September 2006
  • August 2006
  • July 2006
  • June 2006
  • May 2006
  • April 2006
  • March 2006
  • February 2006
  • January 2006
  • September 2005
  • July 2005
  • June 2005

Categories

  • Amazon
  • AOL
  • Apple
  • bank
  • berkshire
  • Blackbox
  • blockbuster
  • Bluetooth
  • BRIC2.0
  • Britney
  • buffett
  • CEO
  • China
  • Chiquita
  • cisco
  • Compliance
  • Daily+Show
  • Darfur
  • Development
  • Dole
  • economics
  • Ecosystem
  • eloan
  • Enhanced+SaaS
  • Enterprise2.0
  • entrepreneur
  • ERP
  • Facebook
  • FlickR
  • force.com
  • Gapminder
  • Google
  • greencard
  • h1b
  • hayek
  • healthcare
  • HTMLDB
  • huawei
  • humor
  • IDC
  • Identity
  • IdM
  • iit
  • immigration
  • India
  • Infosys
  • Innovation
  • iPhoe
  • iPhone
  • iPod
  • irregulars
  • isv
  • Jajah
  • Jon+Stewart
  • khosla
  • KingDee
  • lending
  • lesson
  • LinkedIn
  • Linux
  • loans
  • mashup
  • Micropayments
  • Microsoft
  • Munger
  • myspace
  • netflix
  • netsuite
  • o2con
  • Office2.0
  • On-demand
  • OpenSocial
  • Openworld
  • openworld07
  • Oracle
  • ORCL
  • outsourcing
  • p2p
  • PaaS
  • Pakistan
  • power
  • Prahlad
  • Private+Equity
  • Prosper
  • Pyramid
  • Real Estate
  • RedHat
  • redshift
  • saas
  • salesforce
  • SAP
  • Schwartz
  • Security
  • Seth+Godin
  • Shakira
  • Skype
  • SOA
  • SOX
  • Stats
  • Sun
  • sunw
  • Tally
  • telco
  • Teqlo
  • The+Dip
  • tie
  • Time
  • Tool
  • UFIDA
  • Uncategorized
  • VC
  • venture
  • VMWare
  • water
  • Web2.0
  • webex
  • Wiki
  • workday
  • Yahoo
  • youtube
  • Zoho
  • zopa

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Hit the ground running with a minimalist look. Learn More

Copyright © 2022 - Anshu Sharma