Yahoo's done its best to
fend off Microsoft's
aggressive advances until now, but it suddenly looks like the struggling company might be getting some help -- both the Wall Street Journal and Reuters are reporting that the Yahoo is "closing in" on a deal to merge with Time Warner's AOL division and partner up with Google on search advertising. Yeah, that's pretty major, and it would probably do something about those declining shares Microsoft's been making noise about. The idea is for Time Warner to sell AOL to Yahoo and make a large investment in the new company, which would probably be valued at around $10B. There's apparently a lot of work left to do on the deal, and it would still have to be approved by Yahoo and Time Warner shareholders, but it looks like Yahoo is no longer stuck taking Ballmer and Co. to the dance.
[Disclosure: Look up to the right. See that? Yeah, Engadget is owned by AOL -- but trust us, we have no idea what's going on.]
Read - WSJ article
Read - Reuters article
posted April 9th 2008 10:46PM
Engadhoo!
Hoogadget? Yagadget. Engagya!
I prefer the first.
wtf .. AOL? did I just hit a warp back to 10 years ago?
Separately, The New York Times reported that Microsoft and Rupert Murdoch's News Corp are in negotiations on making a joint bid for Yahoo. That merger would join Yahoo, Microsoft Corp's MSN and News Corp's MySpace, the paper said.
.....Micfospace....
I have to say, that's the best picture since the satellite Alien. Only thing missing is the Barry White music.
I think that picture's the closest thing we've got to Rule 34 of competing IM client logos. That is, until I invoke Rule 35... which I just did...
God help us all.
Look, I hate the way Micro$oft runs it's business just as much as the next guy, but AOL is just....I mean come on! What are the Execs at Yahoo thinking?! AOL SUCKS!
Thats what happends when you hate Microsoft with a passion and run a corporation.
I agree! What are they smoking over there at Yahoo?
they are smokin those good old Stanford vibes...booo M$ haha
Yeah, MIKKKRO$O(swastika)(burning cross) sucks, bro. Try to rage against the machine a little more, it's awesome.
@Martin
...my guess is beluga caviar wrapped in a 1000-British pound note (USD aren't worth enough) and sealed with the egg-whites of endangered condors.
Hate AOL? Hate Endadget too? You know AOL owns this site right? Probably not since you think AOL Sucks.
Just what I was thinking...ANYTHING is better than AOL.
aaannnnddd..... Yahoo stock goes down to $9 per share... way to go Yang.
Pre MSFT offer: $19/share
Post MSFT offer: $29/share
Post AOL merger: $9/share
Watching Yangs childish ego and desperation: priceless.
Makes sense that TW will pawn of the bad sheep on someone else.
NOOOOOOOOOO I despise AOL and their evil discs they used to hand out with a new version on an almost daily basis if not for AIM I wouldnt mind them disappearing forever
And of course, Engadget?
I just use the discs to practice my Ultimate throws.
I flush the discs down the potty.
i would like to see the company that makes up all these wonderful blogs split from aol.. I have the same feelings about them, the only reason and only thing involving aol on my computer is aim, and even then i'm using trillian!
Aw, come on. The discs are yesterday's news and AOL is not the old evil AOL anymore. I favor this merger more than Microsoft's.
I used the discs for fuel for my fire during the Winter time.
well, the CDs sucks buy you can't complain about free floppies
I like the cases that came with the discs. The disks were also great for releasing my anger onto with a key.
oh ha I forgot I couldn't live without engadget and TUAW
Can't WAIT to see the crazy IE toolbars that'll come out of this.
And by "see" I mean "uninstall from all of my relatives computers"
Seriously, what is with that? Why does everyone have all these ridiculous toolbars littered across their web browser? Are they really that lazy that during an installation of GrannyLovesYourCock.exe, the go ahead and leave the [ ] box checked?
now they are going to suck even more!
Anyone besides Microsoft is fine with me
Why? How does it hurt you as a consumer for Microsoft (a fiscally healthy and well-managed company) to absorb Yahoo (a useful but financially floundering company). Are you worried they'll can your favorite newsfeed? If there's one thing we've seen from Microsoft's purchases of late, they've gotten past the "gut for technology and discard" mentality. At this point they purchase people and users - both of which would go away if they made significant changes to the Yahoo platform. No, they'll probably just take over the advertising portion and cut a lot of internal waste out. I doubt you as the user will notice all that much different.
Unless you're one of those kids that has the irrational hate of Microsoft because you heard from the older, cooler kids that Microsoft was "evil" back in the early-to-mid 90s. At this point they're to big to be generally evil, it'd be costly and hurt the stock price too much.
Is Yahoo is a good position to spend 10 billion on a company that doesnt have a bright outlook? AOL is backing out of the ISP market. AIM isnt what it used to be. Netscape is gone now. AOL has only its ads to fall back on. "Revenue at AOL was down 33 percent for 2007 and 32 percent for the fourth quarter. " If Yahoo buys AOL then I can see why Yahoo is going in the hole!
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=7899
AOL is buying Yahoo, Time Warner definitely has the scratch. Yahoo probably doesn't have enough to buy NetZero at this point.
So if AOL is sold to Yahoo...And if Microsoft still wants Yahoo, and they managed to buy it....Microsoft would own AOL. Which means they'd own Engadget. Heh, I wonder what they'd do with TUAW?
I can guarantee you that the comment system would never, ever be fixed.
We might get a few less iPhone stories here on Engadget. That would be a welcome change.
Whoops, I read that wrong and it sent my reply to the wrong person. Awesome, I'll leave now.
Where is ATT/SBC in all of this? I had SBC DSL, then it changed to SBC yahoo, now it is ATT.......I DON'T WANT AOL DSL!!!
The Time Warner stock lost a lot of its value thanks to the merger with AOL. Now, they're going after Yahoo. AOL is like cancer. If this merger goes through, I can foresee Yahoo's stock in the teens in a few months.
I'm sure that skullphone would save the day should this scenario come to pass.
@Rollins
It couldn't be much worse than it is now.
@9bit
Oh, the irony.
YOL = Yahoo Online....and where the hell did this come up?
P.S. I'd buy Yahoo in a second if they would sell themselves for *checks bank account* 48.76USD and maybe with a small loan...
Ultimate is awesome.
this "merger" would problably get approved in the following days after they agree tto merge unlike the sirius xm deal eventhough this would be more or a monopoly than the sirius deal
I dunno, there are more than two search engines, but there really are no other viable satellite radio companies.
Yahoo! is just acting like a typical girlfriend. You know, the part where they start dating random guys from the office to make their boyfriends jealous. The BF rolls over in no time.
I see Steve "Wild A$$" Balmer jacking up the offer by couple of dollars per share just to make Yahoo! happy.
sounds like Yahoo! could catch a disease dating all these random guys before getting with MS.
Bankruptcy is a disease now?