Switchfast Blog: The Future of IT
Microhoo: Microsoft and Yahoo finally agree on a search partnership
Wednesday, July 29, 2009 by Michael Holley
After a TV drama-like series of hot and cold talks spanning
longer than a year, Microsoft and Yahoo have reportedly reached an agreement to merge their
search business. Pending approval from governmental regulatory
bodies - a process expected to take months - the alleged 10-year
search partnership is slated to begin in early 2010.
The implications of this deal are much different than Microsoft's original $45 billion acquisition
offer made nearly 16 months ago. In short, all of Yahoo's
search will be driven by Microsoft's Bing, but Yahoo will continue
to sell search ads and receive the overwhelming majority of the
revenue from those sales. The parties involved consider the deal to
be mutually beneficial, but some think that the scales may be tipped (in Microsoft's favor)
more than it seems from first glance. Regardless, the merger will
put an estimated 30% of the internet's search volume in Microsoft's
hands. While 30% is still a far cry from Google's 65%, it presents
the closest thing to legitimate competition that Google has seen in
quite some time.
Predictably, Google has been vocal about its distaste for this merger since
its infancy, and even made its own run at partnering with Yahoo
that proved unfruitful. Although they're no stranger to anti-trust
scrutiny, this situation is different in that it pits Microsoft
against the industry giant for a change. Many expect the deal to be
approved by the federal government without a hitch because it
presents competition to a well-known and controversial 'search monopoly' case.
What do you think? Could Microsoft take over the search market,
or are the combined forces of Microsoft and Yahoo still just small
bananas to Google, the thousand-pound gorilla of search?
Update 7/30/09: The media continues to question
the decision for these companies to merge as they have. Check out
the clip below for some examples.
Best,
Michael Holley
Switchfast Technologies
Chicago IT Consulting
& Support
Rochester
IT Consulting & Support
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