Why a Yahoo Microsoft Combo Helps Small Businesses


Over the weekend the news was flying about the latest moves by Yahoo in the mergers and acquisitions stakes.  Each day seems to bring something new.

To backtrack a moment, it started on January 31, 2008 when Microsoft made an unsolicited bid to take over Yahoo for $45 Billion.  Yahoo’s Board of Directors thought about it a while and then earlier this weekend rejected the deal. 

Some think the rejection is just Yahoo’s tactic to negotiate a higher price. However, the latest news as of this writing is that Yahoo is exploring a merger with … drumroll please … AOL.  AOL?  Yes, that’s right. (more at Techmeme).

Of course savvy Silicon Valley insiders still think the Microsoft Yahoo deal will happen.  So do I.

And if it does, a Yahoo/Microsoft merger could be a good thing for the small business market.  For my reasons, check out my column this week at Inc Technology:  What a Microsoft/Yahoo Combination Means.

6 Comments ▼

Anita Campbell Anita Campbell is the Founder, CEO and Publisher of Small Business Trends and has been following trends in small businesses since 2003. She is the owner of BizSugar, a social media site for small businesses.

6 Reactions
  1. Hi Anita, You give a very sound and reasoned argument over at Inc. Technology and I concur. True competition in the PPC / SEO field has to be a good thing for small businesses. I guess the one thing that ‘ll really influence this is finding out whether your prospects are using either google or yahoo/msn combo?

    I’m certain some good research will come out that will allow this to be determined.

    And this is important as Small Businesses only have so much money to spend on various activities and they need to spend it in the right place.

    Therefore, don’t be surprised, if more and more people/companies are expected to be asked about their search engine habits by research firms.

    Mike Ashworth
    Business Coaching and Consultancy
    Brighton and Hove, Sussex, UK

  2. Anita,

    I like your analysis and concur.

    I do believe Google will see more competition in the coming days!

  3. I do agree with everyone that Google needs some good competition. Hopefully we will all benefit from it. Can anyone think of a negative effect of the merger? I’d be interested to hear if anyone has some thoughts.

  4. For a very long time I think it was Microsoft who needed the competition.
    Agree Anita, I think a Yahoo/Microsoft would be a great thing and all would benefit by this. Hope it happens.

  5. I wrote about this a year ago… Let the market decide. I am all for a merger between Yahoo and Microsoft. I will continue to use Microsoft’s products together with Linux stuff and maybe get some Mac related gadgets too. My guess is that Yahoo and Microsoft want to become the starting page / portal for more Internet users. I think that the deal with open up for new players, e.g. Netvibes, Pageflakes, etc. I will continue to use Google’s email, chat and other things, but I think a new better mousetrap will enter the scene regarding better and personalized searches on the world wide web. (Did you recall when you shifted from Altavista to Google? It will happen again…)

    All the Best,

    Martin Lindeskog – American in Spirit.
    Gothenburg, Sweden.

  6. Microsoft’s strength is not in it’s internal creativity or innovation, but it’s abaility to spot it elsewhere and buy it. Whatever works!