4 ms·

Google/Yahoo Search Partnership Announcement At 1:30 This Afternoon

27 points by ideas101 18y ago

jonknee 18y ago
What's going to be left to do at Yahoo? Develop Yahoo! Mail? Or is that going to be Gmail as well.
- bluelu 18y ago
  Yahoo is dead. This will only make google's monopoly bigger. Yahoo should have teamed up with Microsoft, and they would have a chance. But instead they waste time on introducing a poison pill (see http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=214893 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=214893) which damages the company when a change of control happens (not only when Microsoft would buy yahoo, but also if the board changes!!!), thus forcing the stockholders not to vote for a new board of directors!
  - fallentimes 18y ago
    Yahoo is not dead. Yahoo Sports gets more hits than ESPN. They have plenty of money making services to offer besides search and are still one of the most visited sites in the world. The days of 80 P/E ratios are over, but that doesn't mean they are dead. Yahoo will be fine.
mdasen 18y ago
1:33 this afternoon, the Justice Department announces sweeping anti-trust against Google. I love Google. They're a model company, but in a 1.5 player market (Google being one player, Yahoo being .3 of a player and Microsoft being .2 of a player), you just can't allow the top two to collude together. Unless the partnership is merely giving Yahoo a fork of PageRank, it's going to be crappy - and it isn't that.
- eugenejen 18y ago
  My opinion is "take it easy". If you are a real capitalist and believe power of market force, the current success of Google may just be its biggest hurdle in future. As long as political power is not involved to hold the barrier for innovations, no one will be the only king forever. Also you misunderstand Anti-trust law. The U.S. system allows you to be a monopoly in a market due to you create efficiency in that area. But as long as you try to leverage that influence on new market with unfair competition, you open the gate to hell for yourself. I thought in 2000 that MS is so unbeatable. But I have no respect for them just 5 years later. It can happen to Google in next 10 years, too.
gscott 18y ago
This doesn't make any sense. Yahoo! bought Overture and runs it's own ad network. This is a lot like Ford giving there employees GM cars to drive.
- pchristensen 18y ago
  More like Lada giving its employees Toyotas to drive.
jsjenkins168 18y ago
I am shocked at the market cap loss YHOO is experiencing right now due to this story.. I've seen breaking news drive stock price fluctuations but this is pretty extreme.
- deleted 18y ago
  [deleted]
- jonknee 18y ago
  Why? This would be outsourcing Yahoo's heart and soul. It's a major game changer and has dramatic long term effects in terms of growth and probability.
  - cstejerean 18y ago
    I don't consider search to be Yahoo's heart and soul. They have several other great products that they need to focus on instead (for example on using Zimbra to chip away at the exchange market share).
    - jonknee 18y ago
      Search and advertising sales.
- mynameishere 18y ago
  It's mainly a re-adjustment based upon the diminished chances of a microsoft buyout. I own MSFT stock (bought some speculatively, expected the deal to fall through, as it did), and at this point Yahoo seems, in fact, quite dead. (I don't mean its properties, but its corporate independence.) I suspect that when it becomes clear that a google deal will happen, yahoo will drop another 30-40 percent. It's really that bad. What's keeping it up is the continued possibility of a stockholder revolt, which is precisely what needs to happen. (Supposedly, someone was organizing it, but I haven't followed along.) The stockholders need to oust the whole board, and replace it will a cleanup crew, who'll sell out to microsoft. A google/yahoo buyout won't happen. The gov't (hopefully) wouldn't allow it.
dcurtis 18y ago
Isn't it a bit presumptuous of Michael Arrington to suggest that this story is directly causing the stock price to fluctuate? I mean, seriously, it's TechCrunch.
- sspencer 18y ago
  This is also being reported on the front page of Reuters, fyi.
- jonknee 18y ago
  I love the humility: > Yahoo Stock is down sharply based on this story and a follow up by Reuters. It was the "follow up" by one of the most widely read and respected news sources. Once it hit Reuters and WSJ it was up on Drudge, CNN, etc. That caused the stock to dive, not a mention on TC inbetween Twitter rants.
- mlinsey 18y ago
  I think when he says "the story" he means "the widespread reports of this news", not "this particular post on TechCrunch".
tx 18y ago
I don't want to comment on the story because I really don't care for ads, but I keep wondering why do people think that the result of Microsoft+Yahoo merger would be stronger than two separate companies? What stops Microsoft from successfully competing with Google starting right now? They freaking OWN 67% of the browser market and 94% of OS market, so they own the address bar and default search setting in nearly every PC sold! How much more leverage do you need??? And yet it's not enough to fight Google off - people keep changing the default search and default homepage setting to http://google.com http://google.com in every brand-new installation of IE. Why would you want to help that company? And how was Yahoo supposed to help them? This isn't the auto-industry where mergers help you out with sharing manufacturing plans, part bins, "platforms" and dealer networks. This kind of shit is FREE on the Internet: all you have to do is to build a superior product, it takes seconds for customers to switch. Message to Microsoft: simply start to innovate again with your engineering, just like you used to against IBM, Lotus and Netscape, forget all that shady marketing BS and half-assed mergers with losers.
- cstejerean 18y ago
  trying to leverage their control of one market to unfairly gain an advantage in another is what got MS in trouble last time.

27 points by ideas101 18y ago

jonknee 18y ago

What's going to be left to do at Yahoo? Develop Yahoo! Mail? Or is that going to be Gmail as well.

bluelu 18y ago
Yahoo is dead. This will only make google's monopoly bigger. Yahoo should have teamed up with Microsoft, and they would have a chance. But instead they waste time on introducing a poison pill (see http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=214893 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=214893) which damages the company when a change of control happens (not only when Microsoft would buy yahoo, but also if the board changes!!!), thus forcing the stockholders not to vote for a new board of directors!
- fallentimes 18y ago
  Yahoo is not dead. Yahoo Sports gets more hits than ESPN. They have plenty of money making services to offer besides search and are still one of the most visited sites in the world. The days of 80 P/E ratios are over, but that doesn't mean they are dead. Yahoo will be fine.

mdasen 18y ago

1:33 this afternoon, the Justice Department announces sweeping anti-trust against Google. I love Google. They're a model company, but in a 1.5 player market (Google being one player, Yahoo being .3 of a player and Microsoft being .2 of a player), you just can't allow the top two to collude together. Unless the partnership is merely giving Yahoo a fork of PageRank, it's going to be crappy - and it isn't that.

eugenejen 18y ago
My opinion is "take it easy". If you are a real capitalist and believe power of market force, the current success of Google may just be its biggest hurdle in future. As long as political power is not involved to hold the barrier for innovations, no one will be the only king forever. Also you misunderstand Anti-trust law. The U.S. system allows you to be a monopoly in a market due to you create efficiency in that area. But as long as you try to leverage that influence on new market with unfair competition, you open the gate to hell for yourself. I thought in 2000 that MS is so unbeatable. But I have no respect for them just 5 years later. It can happen to Google in next 10 years, too.

gscott 18y ago

This doesn't make any sense. Yahoo! bought Overture and runs it's own ad network. This is a lot like Ford giving there employees GM cars to drive.

pchristensen 18y ago
More like Lada giving its employees Toyotas to drive.

jsjenkins168 18y ago

I am shocked at the market cap loss YHOO is experiencing right now due to this story.. I've seen breaking news drive stock price fluctuations but this is pretty extreme.

deleted 18y ago
[deleted]
jonknee 18y ago
Why? This would be outsourcing Yahoo's heart and soul. It's a major game changer and has dramatic long term effects in terms of growth and probability.
- cstejerean 18y ago
  I don't consider search to be Yahoo's heart and soul. They have several other great products that they need to focus on instead (for example on using Zimbra to chip away at the exchange market share).
  - jonknee 18y ago
    Search and advertising sales.
mynameishere 18y ago
It's mainly a re-adjustment based upon the diminished chances of a microsoft buyout. I own MSFT stock (bought some speculatively, expected the deal to fall through, as it did), and at this point Yahoo seems, in fact, quite dead. (I don't mean its properties, but its corporate independence.) I suspect that when it becomes clear that a google deal will happen, yahoo will drop another 30-40 percent. It's really that bad. What's keeping it up is the continued possibility of a stockholder revolt, which is precisely what needs to happen. (Supposedly, someone was organizing it, but I haven't followed along.) The stockholders need to oust the whole board, and replace it will a cleanup crew, who'll sell out to microsoft. A google/yahoo buyout won't happen. The gov't (hopefully) wouldn't allow it.

dcurtis 18y ago

Isn't it a bit presumptuous of Michael Arrington to suggest that this story is directly causing the stock price to fluctuate? I mean, seriously, it's TechCrunch.

sspencer 18y ago
This is also being reported on the front page of Reuters, fyi.
jonknee 18y ago
I love the humility: > Yahoo Stock is down sharply based on this story and a follow up by Reuters. It was the "follow up" by one of the most widely read and respected news sources. Once it hit Reuters and WSJ it was up on Drudge, CNN, etc. That caused the stock to dive, not a mention on TC inbetween Twitter rants.
mlinsey 18y ago
I think when he says "the story" he means "the widespread reports of this news", not "this particular post on TechCrunch".

tx 18y ago

I don't want to comment on the story because I really don't care for ads, but I keep wondering why do people think that the result of Microsoft+Yahoo merger would be stronger than two separate companies? What stops Microsoft from successfully competing with Google starting right now? They freaking OWN 67% of the browser market and 94% of OS market, so they own the address bar and default search setting in nearly every PC sold! How much more leverage do you need??? And yet it's not enough to fight Google off - people keep changing the default search and default homepage setting to http://google.com http://google.com in every brand-new installation of IE. Why would you want to help that company? And how was Yahoo supposed to help them? This isn't the auto-industry where mergers help you out with sharing manufacturing plans, part bins, "platforms" and dealer networks. This kind of shit is FREE on the Internet: all you have to do is to build a superior product, it takes seconds for customers to switch. Message to Microsoft: simply start to innovate again with your engineering, just like you used to against IBM, Lotus and Netscape, forget all that shady marketing BS and half-assed mergers with losers.

cstejerean 18y ago
trying to leverage their control of one market to unfairly gain an advantage in another is what got MS in trouble last time.