Yahoo drifts away from Google, Microsoft still single

May 9, 2008
by Latitude

Yes, it’s a veritable lonely hearts club for search giants this week…

Believe it or not – and I bet you will – it seems that Yahoo’s search tie-up with Google has “[lost] urgency” since Microsoft withdrew its acquisition bid for the former. Fancy that!

So what’s the score now?

Yahoo’s stock hasn’t been rotting as low as some feared, which can be largely attributed to the likelihood that they will eventually cut a deal with Microsoft. MSFT, meanwhile, trotted out no less visible a figure than founder Bill Gates to claim that ”Microsoft is focused on its independent strategy”. John Battelle calls BS on that:

[I]f the company is going to go it alone, it means going back on Steve Ballmer’s promise of 25% of Microsoft revenue as advertising. And I really don’t think the company plans to throttle back on its plans to own a major share of the web media world.

Cue the rumours that Microsoft has approached Facebook about buying out the monster social networking site in which it already owns a significant stake. FB is not thought to be interested, as it really does plan to stay independent and go to an IPO.

Microsoft, rejected like a bad kidney by both Yahoo and Facebook, must be starting to feel like the rich, powerful bloke whom nobody wants to date because of his notorious control freak issues. But those guys nab a partner before too long, because…well, they are rich and powerful. Every company has its price. Which one Microsoft seizes upon to help get it to a quarter of revenues coming from ads is still a wide open field.

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