The on-off-on-off marriage of Yahoo! and MSN broke down yesterday when Microsoft reportedly refused to revive earlier bid terms for the whole of the Yahoo! business. While the latest round of talks were supposedly about MSN buying the search engine business of Yahoo!, it appears that under severe pressure shareholders, Yahoo! management had asked MSN to refloat the recent bid proposals, but to no avail.
As soon as the talks finished it was announced that Yahoo! has agreed to show Google adverts alongside their own search engine ads, a move which is sure to be investigated by the authorities. With Google currently controlling around 60% of the online advertising market and Yahoo! around 20%, MSN (with a 10% share) is sure to try and block the move.
The marriage of Yahoo! and MSN had been seen by many as the only real answer to the rise and rise of Google, but those hopes now lay in tatters. As the cost of entry to the search engine market continues to rise it seems less and less likely that we will see any organic threat to Google, with many believing that the only hope of loosening Google's grip is in the hands of the regulators. |
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