Comments on: Yahoo's Dangerous Stock Dip (Hey, Microsoft, Don't Blow It!)

By: bob rocklin

bob rocklin — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 14:56:05 +0000

Kara makes it appear that if MSFT does not make a deal for YHOO – its all over. She doesn’t have a clue. Obviously she fails to recall that early in their career they faced ‘unsurmonuntable odds’ when they faced the dominant IBM. They face Google as a major challenge. Can they repeat history – I say yes – Google – a fabulous company – is going to go into their dip within two years as do ALL companies. There are serious issues internally at Google brewing. Sara thinks they are like the Titanic -’unsinkable’ – oh such a short term insight.

By: becca allen

becca allen — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 00:53:41 +0000

Yes, Yahoo has been up there as the most visited site on the web. That does make a big difference in the middle of this so-called declining. It’ll be interesting to see what happens…
http://www.fundinguniverse.com.....story.html

By: Robleh Ali

Robleh Ali — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 19:51:09 +0000

MS dodged a bullet, even if they got Yahoo for free it would be a bad move as it would distract management attention away from their core business.

With operating systems getting lighter and enterprise apps migrating to the web churning out new versions of Windows and Office won’t bring in the revenues they once did. MS needs to concentrate on that. If they want to get into web advertising they’d do better to gamble on a few innovative startups rather than try and rescue a sinking ship like Yahoo.

By: John Brady

John Brady — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 17:31:08 +0000

Fundamentals aside, Yahoo is the most visited site on the web ( i think) That’s worth a premium that goes beyond fundamentals. If somebody figures how to take Y to the next level, then Katie bar the door. The current 4% ^ uptick validates this.

By: Michael Boyle

Michael Boyle — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 15:15:55 +0000

I get the financial side of the argument, the part about maximizing Yahoo! shareholder value, but I don’t think anyone has really ever made the case for why this would be a good idea for Yahoo!. Or for Microsoft, for that matter.

The online ad business is not and has never been simply or even mostly about scale. Scale for scale’s sake is not an argument for a Microsoft takeover of Yahoo.

There was a time not too long ago when Google didn’t have anything like the scale to dominate the space, and both MS and Yahoo trotted out strategies to take their “rightful” place as competitors to Google… and both failed. Microsoft has in fact brought forward several (incoherent) strategies, none of which has worked, leading them to require a hail-mary pass to even stay relevent.

But scale is a function of the execution of a strategy, not some panacea that can be bought. I have seen no evidence that Microsoft has done anything to solve this fundamental problem – and so buying Yahoo would have been a faster way to race both companies to the bottom.