According to Marketwatch, there will be no Microsoft acquisition of Yahoo! because Microsoft cannot meet Yahoo’s economic demands.
Who out there besides Microsoft ever though this acquisition made any sense? From the get-go Yahoo! didn’t seem interested in being swallowed or dismantled by Microsoft. The whole thing seemed rediculous and it seems that Microsoft’s desparation to do something, anything to catch up to Google online is starting to show. I’d sum it up like this:
This is like a high school cross-country race. Google wins at each meet, Yahoo! comes in second and once in a while MSFT has someone that manages to finish the race while wearing downhill ski boots.
Microsoft and Yahoo! can’t figure out how Google wins all the time. Yahoo! isn’t bad but they aren’t all that good either. Microsoft has great athletes, great coaches and the best equipment and training facilities money can buy. The Microsoft downhill ski team wins all the time and they think that wearing ski boots while running a cross-country race should work just as well on the trails as it does on the snow.
Microsoft decides to try to team up with Yahoo! to beat Google. Microsoft wants Yahoo! to wear ski boots for the cross country race and then for Microsoft and Yahoo! to tie one leg together. They figure that with the power of the two of them together they should blow right by Google.
Yahoo! doesn’t really think this makes sense but since Yahoo! is afraid of getting kicked by the Microsoft runners wearing ski boots, they reluctantly give in.
In the next race when Microsoft and Yahoo! have their legs tied together they take one step and fall over and sustain injuries that put them out for the season.
Google goes on to win every race as usual, the Google ski team also wins since Microsoft and Yahoo! have sustained injuries that put them out for the ski season.
What Microsoft needs is a fresh perspective. They have brilliant people there. They have the best service of any search advertising provider in the industry. They just don’t have what people want – consumers or advertisers. They can’t buy what they need, they need to develop it, hire some smart Internet people (not software people).
From a consumer (or search results and search advertising) perspective, all I can say is thank-god the Microsoft-Yahoo! deal is going nowhere (at least for now). We’ll still have more than 2 search advertising options, we’ll still have more than 2 unique companies that serve up search results and that is a good thing.
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