Yahoo obtained an extension to the deadline for nominating candidates to its boards. Yahoo was reportedly in talks with Time Warner for forming a joint venture with AOL in its attempt to ward off the Microsoft bid of $44 billion and the expectation that the Redmond giant would attempt to nominate candidates to Yahoo’s board to have its way.
In a statement, Yahoo said the extension would allow its board “to continue to explore all of its strategic alternatives for maximizing value for stockholders without the distraction of a proxy contest.”
Yahoo and AOL declined comment on the reports Wednesday in The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times that Yahoo and Time Warner have stepped up discussions over AOL.
The AOL-Yahoo partnership, if it goes through would be a major victory for Google. The search firm already owns 5% stake in AOL. It is the follow-up that needs attention since a Yahoo-AOL could either prove a strong competitor to Google’s advertising platform or outsource the search part to Google, adding that much discomfort to Microsoft’s advertising network.
Yahoo has also been touted to be in talks with News.corp for a deal that could perhaps see the web portal make the most of the uber social networking site MySpace, owned by News.corp.
From the competitiveness perspective it is doubtful whether the Microsoft- Yahoo combination could mount a well targeted attack upon Google. The merger of the firms entails a merger of two differing cultures and hierarchies that could essentially take a significant amount of time to materialize. Also, Google would flex all its muscles to have the deal scrutinized by the Justice departments.
Yahoo and Google have been the star companies of the internet era. While Yahoo took the portalized approach to content, essentially aiming to be the one stop destination for all all content, Google stuck to its core functionality of search and never attempted to own the content waters but only offered services around content available on the web.
Though Yahoo has been reeling through tough times, its hard to tell whether the portalized approach has no future. With mobile technology adoption progressing at a rapid pace, the portalized approach may see the emergence of the next technology giant. While the whole media sees Microsoft’s bid for Yahoo as a way to topple Google in the search space, the Redmond giant may perhaps be having the emerging consumer mobile market in its mind.
Do you feel the potential deal would make or break Yahoo ?
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