Now Yahoo wants to and Microsoft doesn’t

Fri 7 November 2008 13:43, Bas van den Beld

The ‘love affair’ between Microsoft and Yahoo! seemed over when Yahoo declined Microsoft’s final offer off 33$ a share. Then Google stepped in and signed a deal with Yahoo to start selling Google Ad’s with Yahoo search results.

This week Google abandoned the deal with Yahoo and once again Yahoo was a ‘free man’. Much to the disappointment of Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang. At the Web 2.0 summit in Sydney this week he stated: “To this day, I have to say that the best thing for Microsoft to do is to buy Yahoo. I don't think that is a bad idea at all...”. A clear sign of trying to re-open the negotiations one could say? However, Microsoft doesn’t seem interested.

Yang’s statement had some ‘buts’ hanging to it. In the talk Yang had on stage with John Batelle he also said Yahoo was willing to sell “at the right price”. And that’s the tricky part. What is the right price? Yang’s statement leaves a lot of room for speculation.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer didn’t fall for the advances made by Yang. Today he said not to be interested in a new deal with Yahoo! It seems the ‘break up’ earlier this year has left more open wounds than expected.

Also in Sydney Ballmer stated “We are not interested in going back and re-looking at an acquisition, I don't know why they would be either, frankly." And to make clear how he feels about the new approach made by Yang he said “they turned us down at $33 a share, move on”. Look at Ballmer’s speech here.

Us Europeans wouldn’t have noticed much off the add-deal between Yahoo and Google. If Microsoft and Yahoo would join forces however, Europeans would have a choice of two bigger search engines. However the advantage Google has in user percentages would also be difficult to beat by a Microsoft / Yahoo search engine.

See below the talk between Yang and Batelle in Sydney.

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