News Corp. To Buy Yahoo, The Sale of Panama Search to Microsoft, and Other Horrible Ideas

I’m not going to say too much about this as its literally been covered by everyone in the world today, but with Terry Semel now gone from Yahoo the speculation is picking up on deals involving the company. CNBC’s David Faber specifically notes quite a few possibilities that at least according to him are in the very early planning stages. Most notable are News Corp buying a 25% stake in Yahoo by selling them MySpace for $10 billion – and Time Warner creating a AOL-Yahoo hybrid which would rely on Google search and see Yahoo’s baby Panama search technology sold to Microsoft. Both of these sound like god-awful ideas to me.

Yahoo is a good company. Yes, they’ve been overrun by Google but I think you’d be hard-pressed to find a company who wouldn’t have been. Google is simply a once-in-a-generation force of nature that arose seemingly out of nowhere thanks to a combination of perfect timing, impeccable vision, and a genius group of programmers who could make web apps fly like no one before and still (in my opinion) no one since.

But I’ll repeat: Yahoo is a good company. There shouldn’t be talk of these huge conglomerates, Time Warner and News Corp., swooping in to basically pick the bones dry like the company was already dead. Yahoo is still a viable alternative to Google. They do certain things better, like photos (with Flickr) and bookmarking (with del.icio.us) – and wait, lets not forget YAHOO IS STILL USED BY MORE PEOPLE THAN GOOGLE.

The Microsot/Yahoo direct alliance rumors will no doubt come up again as well, but I really hope Yahoo is able to stay independent. The Internet needs Yahoo – not every company needs to be acquired by another one just because they can be.

Actually, thinking about it now there is one company who has enjoyed a tremendous amount of success recently, maybe they should step in and buy part of Yahoo…Facebook :)

[UPDATE]: TechCrunch has confirmed the rumors of News Corp. looking into Yahoo, but he pegs the deal as making MySpace’s value around $12 billion. Crazy that a company bought less than 2 years ago for $580 million (MySpace) could now be worth $12 billion.

Crazier still if Google tries to buy Facebook as a result. (More to come on this I forsee…)

More on this story here and here.

Post by MG Siegler on 06/19/07
Comments
  • jollyjo
    I do think some companies should remain independent...however, on the outside looking in, one never understands fully the internal dynamics that trigger these things...


    With Yahoo, I am convinced the only way to make up ground on Google quickly is some form of business combination...



    If that feeling is a part of the internal dynamics...it's just a matter of time....
  • Duncan
    Yahoo may have more collective users that Google, but the money is in search and in that regard Yahoo is miles behind. More people visit MySpace than Google for memory as well, but the monetization of that traffic is far worse again.
  • MG Siegler
    @jollyjo - you're probably right, but should their goal really be catching Google at this point? Is that still possible for them regardless of the partnership? Maybe they should look beyond...


    @duncan - Great point, but something I think still has to be said when you have the most people using your service.



    As I said above, I don't think Yahoo is catching Google in the ad game at this point - but there is clearly still something to their service. Maybe they should try to play a new tune rather than try to play catch up.
  • Webomatica
    Gee. 12 billion is a lot of dough. Amateur analysis: buy facebook instead. And start making more use of the companies you've already bought - mybloglog, flickr, delicious - combine them all with the yahoo ID and build a social network over all existing Yahoo! properties.
  • MG Siegler
    @webomatica - I 100% agree. They have so many little great pieces that could be amazing if they make more whole...
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