Microsoft Shows the Money to Yahoo

This morning, Microsoft announced it's proposal to Yahoo!'s Board of Directors for $44.6 billion in cash and stock.

Yahoo! is reportedly considering the deal, as talks in February 2007 resulted in Yahoo! Board sending a letter to Microsoft, stating:

"now is not the right time from the perspective of our shareholders to enter into discussions regarding an acquisition transaction.”

One year later, and one day after Yahoo!'s shares dropped significantly, layoffs are announced and everyone is predicting the end of Yahoo! (again), Microsoft is riding in on it's white horse to save the day.

Microsoft's rebuttal (I mean, proposal) this year states,

"Microsoft’s consistent belief has been that the combination of
Microsoft and Yahoo! clearly represents the best way to deliver maximum
value to our respective shareholders, as well as create a more
efficient and competitive company that would provide greater value and
service to our customers."

The combination of these services include:

• Search & Display Advertising (obviously)
• Competition in the Realm of Search (Paid and Unpaid)
• Expanded Research & Development
• Operational Efficiency & Reduced Operating Costs (more layoffs coming??)
• Emerging Technology - Video, Mobile, Online Commerce, Social Media and Social Platform

My opinion coming shortly..

Technorati Tags: microsoft buys yahoo, microsoft, yahoo, microsoft acquisition, yahoo acquisition, search engine marketing, SEM, search engine

Google's Search Domination Increases

Marketing Charts released their "Share of Online Searches by Engine" chart today and the results really shouldn't be news to anyone. Google increased their online search domination from 55.2% to 56.3%, leaving Yahoo (21.9% to 21.5%) and MSN (9.0% to 8.4%) in their dust. The big surprise was Ask, which increased search share from 1.8% to 2.0%. While this isn't a huge increase, when the other major players in the game are steadily losing share, it's refreshing to the underdog make some advances. Could this be the power of "The Algorithm"? Well, let's wait and see next month's chart before making that leap.

Tags: ask, google, msn, search engine marketing, the algorithm, yahoo, SEM