My thoughts on the Microsoft offer to Yahoo!
Google is king of search and of search advertising. No one questions that. They are also one of the premier, instantly recognizable brands in the world. Again, no one questions that. Google ended 2007 holding a 58.4% share of searches (between top 5 search engines). The next two search engines? Yahoo! coming in at 22.9% and Microsoft coming in 9.8%.
Now neither Yahoo! or Microsoft have been any real threat to Google with their individual search solutions. If you combine their shares they still only come in at 32.7% and still will have a ways to go. But here is the thing, all of a sudden big bad Microsoft has moved its market share up by 22.9% and on top of that has likely revitalized its internal focus on search once again. If there is one thing Microsoft will not lack in, its financial and human resources.
Google has been the leader for so long now, how will they react under the pressure of Microsoft gaining ground on them? Another thing, Google is now a public company. Something they weren’t when they were really competing in the early days, before they broke away from the pack. Google stock has been through the roof, how will this deal, if it goes through, effect Google’s investors now that they are not comparing stocks with a struggling Yahoo! but instead an always stable Microsoft stock. Unlike a lot of other public companies Microsoft has the ability to invest in new business units and allow them time to turn around and grow without feeling many ill effects on their stock. Business units that come to mind immediately are Xbox, and Live.com, but there are others.
Also say what you will about Microsoft, they are successful as a company and in a lot of the ventures they undertake.
*Numbers courtesy of comScore
