First Microsoft Yahoo Talks Of 2009 Begin

According to ATD, this past week Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer are finally talking about search and also advertising partnerships. Sources close to the situation are saying that the deal is likely to happen before the end of the year, however there are no discussions about a renewed acquisition attempt by Microsoft. Bartz is finally beginning what most believe to be is her sole mission at Yahoo, to strike up a deal with Microsoft; a mess that could have been avoided had it not been for Jerry Yang last year. It has been my biggest assumption that Microsoft’s plan for a search re-brand under the name Kumo is being put off until they can co-brand it with Yahoo and launch together. Microsoft has been preparing for a deal since it fell through last year, hiring Qi Lu, a former Yahoo tech star, who is leading all of Microsoft’s online efforts. They have hired numerous other ex-Yahoo employees to help better understand the inner workings of their business.
And, at another meeting with Wall Street analysts earlier, he went even further:“You all know that I would like to figure out how to pool somehow Microsoft and Yahoo. I’m not talking about doing an acquisition, blah, blah, blah, back to search deals, blah, blah, blah, I don’t know if anything is going to happen. I’ll short-circuit the whole conversation, but the fact of the matter is, these two guys [Microsoft and Yahoo] should somehow figure out how to get together and create more competition for this guy [Google]. And I’m hoping perhaps that that’s a reasonable conversation to have with new management at Yahoo as Carol comes onboard.”
Yahoo is the No. 2 player in search at the moment, with a much larger share than third-place Microsoft. According to recent surveys, Google has a 63 percent share, while Yahoo has 20.6 percent and Microsoft 8 percent. Yahoo and Microsoft, combined with a new brand would present a much more attractive buy to advertisers. Certainly for investors sake on Yahoo’s behalf, this deal needs to be made.