There are reports that Microsoft is offering over $44 billion for the troubled Yahoo. They are clearly not happy taking “no” as an answer and being third. They met analyst expectations for the fourth quarter, and are hungrier than ever in the online marketing world. This would be a huge move in the M&A’s that have been prevalent in the online advertising world. As Google continues to own the paid search market, and continues to grow in other mediums such as radio and print, Yahoo and MSN have struggled to keep pace. This will bring number 2 and 3 together along with all the ad serving entities that they have acquired.
The deal is not permanent, but could be the move of 2008 if the plan goes through. This will definitely have a huge impact on interactive marketing, pricing, inventory, and optimization. This will increase the theory of price fixing through insider knowledge if this happens, as these two giants would bring together so much inventory and knowledge of optimization/conversion.
From a personal stand point, I would love it if this happened so MSN would update their reporting systems. Making mass changes on campaigns is a nightmare!
Stay tuned……Will Google react? or continue to push on the mobile front?
Tags: Google, Microsoft, MSN, Search Marketing, Yahoo!
