Comments on: Yahoo investor urges Microsoft search deal

Ivory Investment Management, which holds a 1.5 percent stake in the search company, says such a deal could result in a $24 to $29 per share value to shareholders.

[The_happy_switcher]

I hope these two crappy companies do get together eventually because everyone knows that two bricks tied together float better than one, right?

[Vegaman_Dan]

....or Microsoft could buy up the Search business and tell Yahoo to take a flying leap, MSFT won't sell search services to them at all. Once MSFT has the search business, selling the services back to Yahoo won't make them nearly as much money as if they just use it for themselves.

Yahoo without search is even more worthless at that point, but right now, if they can get any money at all for anything they have, then that's better than their current situation.

I love how Yahoo and their investors are deciding what terms are best for Microsoft. Perhaps they should ask Microsoft what terms that Microsoft wants instead.

[aka_tripleB]

It's too late for Yahoo! to make any deals. If it makes one, too many people will cut their loses and drive the company into the ground.

[humanssssss]

If Yahoo sold search, what is left of Yahoo? I don't go to yahoo for anything except IM and email. Other than that, I don't need any of yahoo services.

This is karma coming to yahoo. It violated human rights and needs to be punished.

[Penguinisto]

"This deal would offer Microsoft the unique opportunity to immediately gain critical mass to better level the playing field with Google"

Umm, yeah... (cued in my best imitation of the Office Space management voice...)

This guy realizes that the time and effort involved in integration, coupled with the massive Linux-based infrastructure that Yahoo basically is, will pretty much hamper things if MSFT runs it, right? I haven't even touched on the even more massive flight of human resources (not to mention the layoffs that would happen in a merger anyway), and those left behind being disrupted by changing management...

Meanwhile, Google will merely increase its marketshare in search by simple dint of not having to deal with all the merger disruption, attrition, confusion, etc. They'd instead be perfectly poised to take full advantage of the mess.

In the end, I could easily predict that MSFT/Yahoo search would have to settle for 15-20% of the market at best, and Google would easily climb to 80-85% of it (from its present position of ~72% or so right now).

...so where would that leave investors? Holding an empty and shrinking bag, that's where.

/P