June 22, 2007 | Friday

London Office: 55 New Oxford Street, London, WC1A 1BS, UK / Tel: 020 7952 8000 / Fax: 020 7952 8001
Cheshire Office: Mandarin Court, Warrington, Cheshire, WA1 1GG, England UK / Tel: 01925 413513 / Fax: 01925 420118

Yahoo: The reason for the ruckus

By Jackie Danicki - Blogger in Search Engines |Yahoo

While Yahoo celebrates the launch of the second release of its Go mobile internet app today, rumors abound as to whether or not the search giant is up for sale, or is set to do a deal with MySpace. Does the latter even make sense?

Why give away 25% of your company to get something when you have a new CEO, an embattled image, and freaked out senior staff? It would smack of desperation, would it not? And I thought Murdoch viewed MySpace as critical to Newscorp’s future?

Elsewhere, my pal Om Malik is putting some odds on what he calls “five likely suitors” who may purchase Yahoo. If you think Yahoo isn’t up for sale, you might want to consider Om’s take on the turmoil that’s engulfed the company lately:

[I]t’s growing evident that the bigger force driving these events is a plan to put Yahoo on the block. Why else would appoint a founder as CEO, foregoing the chance to bring in an experienced CEO from outside (even though, as Semel said, Yahoo had “long been talking about … a smooth transition.”)

It’s worth noting that both Om and John see private equity as Yahoo’s best bet at this point. As Om says:

Yahoo’s corporate culture and structure are a shambles, and repairing things while keeping revenue growing and innovation alive will be nearly impossible with current leadership and board direction. Private-equity takeovers are ideal for these kinds of clean-ups. They eliminate infighting and focus on implementing a smart plan quickly. There is significant risk: A restructured Yahoo may lose its innovative edge and alienate its longtime users. But as things stand now, that seems to be the path Yahoo is on anyway.