YahoOL?
Posted by tim on November 01, 2006 at 10:17 AM
There are rumors starting to fly that Yahoo! has approached Time Warner about buying AOL. Since I can't even reasonably pretend to have an intelligent discussion about corporate buyouts, I'll leave that to other sources.
As a search marketing professional though, I hope there is truth to this for the sake of the Yahoo! Search Marketing Network.
We've watched Google expand its reach for years now, which has dug deep into Yahoo!'s potential inventory. With Microsoft entering the search marketing arena several months ago, Yahoo! suffered a direct hit. It would be a great move for Terry Semel and Yahoo! to scoop up AOL.
Not only would Yahoo! now have a tremendous new source of inventory for its advertisers, but Yahoo! would take a huge source away from Google (who currently has a partnership for AOL). AOL users are typically a strong audience for many advertisers and Yahoo! would be wise to bolster its offering with this group.
Lately, with Google making such a buzz on Wall Street, this kind of move would also help Yahoo! steal some thunder and likely boost sagging stocks. Plus, with AOL constantly moving away from relying so much on being an ISP, they get closer and closer to being a great fit for Yahoo!.
Of course, everyone involved denies everything, but doesn't that usually mean we are days from seeing a deal close?
Tags
yahoo search marketing
yahoo buying aol
Category
Strategy
Comments (2)
Posted on November 2, 2006 12:54 PM
As far as I can imagine this is not just a rumor. Yahoo has suffered behind Google’s acquisitions and expanding. The logical idea is that they need something big to come up to in order to get on itself a better impression and not loosing a slice of the sweet cake called Internet. Although I do not agree with some of their politics, such as revealing surfers’ identity, I wish they buy AOL, just for the balance sake with Google.
Posted on November 1, 2006 11:19 AM
Wanted to point out a great interview with Eric Schmidt, google CEO -- on Financial Times "View From The Top" video -- http://video.ft.com