Why Yahoo Turned Microsoft Down 161
quarterbuck writes "The NYTimes has up a great blog post that explains a bit of the backstory behind the Yahoo-Microsoft No-deal. While Jerry Yang did not want to sell the company, it is not likely that he could have said No to Microsoft, and explained it to shareholders, without the help of Google. The article gives reasons behind Google's tossing a lifeline to its biggest competitor, and the 'coop-etition' that has been going on between the two companies, which both emerged out of Stanford University."
Time will tell... (Score:5, Interesting)
If stockholders come to MS for a bailout of their capital, they don't even need a hostile takeover -- it will be a willing one. And the profits Yahoo posts from Google won't reflect in their stock price for a while.
We'll see how long it takes Yahoo investors to either let the company rebound, or to bail themselves out. Yang is in an interesting position, that's all I can say.
Re:Yahoo is worth more than M$ offered (Score:3, Interesting)
Google helped yahoo. (Score:1, Interesting)
Google == White Knight (Score:5, Interesting)
2. Google is keeping their enemies closer at this point. This is basically a white-knight move on Google's part to keep Microsoft out of their space at all costs. The question to Google is how long will it be until this kind of action starts affecting their bottom line numbers.
In a very heartless way, I'm all for the Microsoft->Yahoo acquisition. Most acquisitions fail to generate anything near the claims management makes. Microsoft would simply leave the door open for ex-Yahoo employees to startup things that would be a bigger thorn in Microsoft's side.
Death by thousands of thorns if you will pardon the pun.
Re:Google and Yahoo should team up (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Time will tell... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:No, Yahoo's Board Negotiated in Bad Faith (Score:3, Interesting)
What obligation is that? Is the board obligated to make a deal with Microsoft? Are they obligated to engage in a good faith negotiation with them?
You'd have to show that rejecting Microsoft's unsolicited bid was not in the best interests of Yahoo's shareholders. That may seem obvious to you now, but only time will tell. If they did negotiate in bad-faith, that is an affront to Microsoft, sure... but not grounds for a shareholder action per se. Keep in mind that they were responding to an unsolicited and unwelcome bid.
Re:Yahoo is worth more than M$ offered (Score:0, Interesting)
Re:Time will tell... (Score:5, Interesting)
They aren't buying Yahoo to take them out of the picture. They're buying Yahoo to combine market share, technology, and resources so that they can compete with Google as one team. Right now Google is eating up market share from everyone else and both Microsoft and Yahoo are losing market share. It helps neither of them to compete with each other when the big kid in the room (Google) is causing all of the problems.
This is why Yahoo share prices are declining: the market expects that the trend will continue (Yahoo losing market share to Google) therefore profitability will decrease.
Now the actions through which Microsoft utilized (buying Yahoo) may have not been the right way to go about things. It may have been a better idea for Microsoft and Yahoo to enter a strategic alliance in the short term and assess the success or lack of it later.
In the mean time, Google is perfectly happy with throwing a bone to Yahoo to keep the merger from going through. This makes their lives easier because it prevents the two from sharing technology and helps to maintain Google's lead in market share and tech.
And if I was Microsoft and the merger went through, I would axe MSN, not Yahoo. Yahoo has too much branding behind it (especially internationally) that it would be a good facade to maintain.
Now the funny thing is that I own a share of Google, so the news of the Yahoo-MS merger not going through actually helps me :).
Google Competition != Destruction (Score:3, Interesting)
A thriving market place makes a lot of money for everyone, yourself included. You have a vested interest in maintaining the market place.
The loss of a major fair playing competitor and the introduction of a stronger destruction driven monopolist makes it harder for everyone, including Google, to make money.
Google wants yahoo in place. They make money from Yahoo. Yahoo wants google in place, they make money with google. Where their businesses do not conflict, they work together. Both Yahoo and Google aren't fighting to destroy one another, they are in business to make money. It is friendly and profitable competition. They way it should be. The that capitalism works best.
Microsoft on the other hand can not compete on a fair market. They never have and never will be able. They must capitalize on their illegally maintained windows and office monopoly to destroy competition and destroy the marketplace leaving only enough business for themselves.
Google is a strong competitor, I don't "trust" them per se'. for The time being, however, they've shown that they understand ethics and the phrase "a rising tide lifts all boats."
Re:Time will tell... (Score:3, Interesting)
Microsoft wants to push their proprietary Silverlight "web" to retake the glorious control they had pre-internet vs. today's picture with some degree of cross platform support and EEK competition!
Flash has quite a lead, but Microsoft's control of 90% of the world's machines with push-force-update software is pretty darn handy.
The Wii's big - but stingy - audience (Score:5, Interesting)
It hasn't been all peaches and cream for the Wii.
Wii, though less technologically advanced than Microsoft's Xbox 360 or Sony's PlayStation 3, continues to outsell those machines and is now in more than 20 million homes.
So why are retailers having so much trouble selling Wii games?
Take Super Smash Bros. Brawl. It was one the most hotly anticipated video games of the year; it sold more than 1.4 million copies during the first week of its release.
But sales dropped more than 90 percent over the first four weeks.
A number of games that garnered critical acclaim in recent months, notably the cartoonish action-adventure game Zack & Wiki and the off-kilter action-adventure No More Heroes, have yielded disappointing sales.
Over the first three months of the year, only three other Wii titles broke the list of top 10 best-selling games.
Younger children, women and older consumers, who historically have not been sought by the video-game industry, have discovered video games through the Wii -- just not that many of them.
These new gamers are content with the games they have, often going no further than the Wii Sports game that comes with the machine. They don't buy new games with the fervor of a traditional gamer who is constantly seeking new stimulation.
The average Wii owner buys only 3.7 games a year, compared with 4.7 for Xbox 360 owners and 4.6 for PlayStation 3 owners.
"When you make a game like Zack & Wiki or Boogie, which turns the hard core off and doesn't reach the masses, then you're in trouble."
Wii Fit, an exercise game due next month, is expected to receive more marketing dollars than any game in Nintendo's history -- and the money will not be spent wooing young men. "Wii Fit is just not aimed at hard-core gamers. It's definitely aimed at the Oprah crowd. I bet they sell a million units a week for every pound that Oprah says she lost on it."
New Wii Games Find a Big (but Stingy) Audience [nytimes.com] [April 21, 2008]
Re:The Wii's big - but stingy - audience (Score:5, Interesting)
My point is that the Xbox360 had 1 year head start yet the Wii has overtaken them in sheer numbers. And Nintendo makes money on every Wii. MS is only now starting to make money on the Xbox 360 and has to recover several billion dollars.
Your article also only discusses why Wii games aren't selling well. There is no real doubt that the console is selling well. Is this a serious problem for the Wii? For the Xbox and the Playstation, they targeted hardcore gamers. This player wants a wide selection and will buy more titles a year. Well, the average Wii owner is not a hardcore gamer and not as likely to buy multiple games a year. They will buy a few titles that they enjoy playing over and over. Will fewer titles keep a hardcore gamer from buying a console? Yes, considering the higher price of the Xbox 360 and PS3. Will fewer titles keep a casual gamer from buying a Wii? Not if the Wii already has the few titles that they wanted especially since it is cheaper.