Yahoo – missed the boat…
The deal with Microsoft has been going on for months (Jan 31 to May 3), and it looks like both companies blame each other for the failure of this deal. “Right from the beginning we were open to doing a deal,” said Mr. Bostock, the Yahoo chairman. “It was simply a matter of getting the right price and getting the deal terms negotiated. They started backing off early on in the process.”
Microsoft sees it differently. “Microsoft diligently pursued a proposed acquisition from the day we made our offer on Jan. 31 to the day we withdrew it on May 3,” Bradford L. Smith, Microsoft’s general counsel, said by e-mail. But Yahoo’s management and board failed to engage in meaningful negotiations for weeks, Mr. Smith added.
If we go back and re-evaluate Yahoo’s approach on Advertising, we might find few things that many of Yahoo’s shareholders are looking at and they should actually look closer.
Yahoo has purchased Overture in 2003, search engine that was launched in 1998 (known as GoTo). Overture brought to the Internet Advertising the PPC (pay-per-click) model, and they key of their success was when Overture decided not to bring traffic to their site, but to offer its paid listings to other search engines. It was a very smart move, which made us all happy, as we could really bring more leads into our business, just by using one source – Overture.
Once Overture became Yahoo Search Marketing, our PPC experience with this company took a drastic turn, and I wouldn’t say a positive one – I remember how all the campaigns were changed so it reflects the Google AdWords structure. I am sure that all of us spent days to re-organize the campaigns and get our level of production to the same level. I would have to say that now, in certain cases I prefer them against AdWords, not because they are better, they are slower, so the most patient Advertiser wins, so as the competition struggles, the prices go down. I am sure these are not good news for the shareholders.
The Content Network has been inexistent in the beginning, and when it got started … gosh, watching it constantly wasn’t enough. It took another week to clean the mess. More updates and changes into Yahoo Search Marketing system, seemed to be like a Deja-Vu, for following Google’s steps and for another, getting again into the same struggles as before.
Yahoo’s plan… we will wait and see, Microsoft is probably going to make a move, most likely they are going over their Search, but apparently Mr. Yang is for all or nothing. Is it going to be a $33 a share or $37? My guess is that if this comes to a deal, it will be for less than $33. They lost the boat once again, but it will come around. We’ll see if Steve Jobs’ interview to 300 vice presidents, held last September, was fruitful at all. Mr. Jobs spoke about the ingredients of his recipe for reviving Apple in 1996 – painful cuts and the reserve of “dry powder” – to be able to seize new opportunities (as Apple did with the iPod).
The Lead Generation is going to keep an eye on their progress. The Lead Exchanges are part of Yahoo’s business – we are all connected in so many levels.
We know that Google is pretty much out and the latest news are confirming the “no go” in Google-Yahoo deal:
“I am writing to urge you to direct your office to take quick and decisive action by launching a formal investigation into the proposed business transaction between Google and Yahoo’s search-advertising business,” Joel Anderson, a Republican assemblyman from San Diego, said in a letter to California Attorney General Jerry Brown released this week. Google controls already 70% of search-related advertising market. This coalition could give Google even more power towards consumers browsing habits and choices.
