Yahoo and MSN have been getting whipped by Google for an embarassingly long time now. They both had grand plans to give Google a run for their money in the ultra-lucrative search sector, but that hasn’t happened. So now there’s talk the two companies could merge. There are a ton of advantages to a deal like this, especially considering where the two companies are currently at, in relation to Google.
If Microsoft and Yahoo merged, their market share in search would still trail Google’s but not by a wide amount.
According to figures from Web traffic tracking firm comScore, Yahoo-MSN combined had 38.4 percent of the search market in the U.S. in March. Google led the market with a 48.3 percent share.
Together, the combined brand might actually be able to make a run of it against Google. Right now neither company is up to the task, but perhaps they could do a better job merged.
Spokesman for the companies haven’t made an announcement on their plans.
What do you think of this potential merger?
It does make sense doesn’t it. Google needs the competition that such a merger would provide. Wonder how this combination will work? Which will be the controlling interest? There are certainly a lot of questions about such a merger.
We need someone to step up and compete with Google. Unfortunately, MSN and Yahoo have rather botched their efforts so far. The real question to me is would the different cultures of the two companies be able to merge?
Going from 2 weak competitors to one doesn’t seem like that great of an idea. Yahoo and MSN merging leaves me cold.
It will help the advertisers
MSN has such a great business model and Yahoo is such a well known internet presence, I think this would be a natural partnership.