Microsoft to Buy Yahoo!? What Does it Mean for the Search Industry?

Nothing ever remains staid for long in the realm of internet search. Only this afternoon, a little-known firm called Microsoft, is interested in building its online advertising empire with the acquisition / merger (depending on what report you read) of another little company you may have heard of, called Yahoo!

This is indeed, big news! Its, what is known in the finance market, a "Whopper!" of a news story! But what does it all mean and who benefits?

The benefits from this news are apparent from today's NASDAQ figures. The market was so buoyed by the rumour, that the Yahoo! share price jumped a massive 19% from $5.19 at opening to $33.37 within minutes of the news being released. A quick glance at Bloomberg also shows that this is the greatest jump Yahoo! has seen in 4 1/2 years! If I were a Yahoo! shareholder I'd be dancing in the streets just now!

Interestingly, the news didn't do much for Microsoft’s share price which were down slightly by 1.7% to $30.47 (at time of writing). Doesn't this seems strange? Well it is on the face of it.

However, despite recent efforts to break into online advertising, Microsoft have struggled to make headway against the current search engine of choice: Google. This means that software remains Microsoft's biggest profit driver, and spending the whopping amount of $50billion to acquire a company in the area you’re least experienced - not to mention least profitable - makes people nervous.

Especially city people!

Chris Cathcart, finance vertical strategist for bigmouthmedia said of the proposed deal:

"Recent years have not been kind to Yahoo!, and their growth has been slowing down. Last quarter, their revenue growth was 7% - the first time its been below 10% in five years. This deal will be good for both them and Microsoft as the deal will take Microsoft's online market share (in the US) from 12% to 38.5% in comparison to rival Google’s’ 48% market share."

However, it’s all yet to be seen if any deal is actually going to transpire as both Yahoo! and Microsoft are giving the media the traditional "No Comment" response. On a personal level, I hope it does go through: its been a while that anything this exciting happened in the markets - let alone the search engine industry.

And its good to see Microsoft getting back into the things they’ve been renowned for in the past, with the return of their in-famous "Can't beat 'em, Buy 'em!" attitude. The difference is this time they are taking on a big dog! And big dogs often bite!