Yahoo-AOL Deal in the Works

By

A Wall Street Journal report has online tongues wagging about what it would mean if AOL purchased Yahoo. The article reveals that digital content provider AOL, along with private equity firms including Silver Lake Partners and Blackstone Group, are looking to acquire Yahoo in an effort to eat into Google’s burgeoning market share. 

Shares of Yahoo jumped more than 12 percent in pre-market trading following the report that the Internet portal may be soon bought out. The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed individuals familiar with the plan, said the acquisition discussions were very preliminary. What’s more, Yahoo and AOL have yet to publicly comment on the report.

This isn’t the first time there’s been talk of a Yahoo acquisition. In 2008, the company rejected Microsoft’s proposal to acquire all outstanding shares of Yahoo common stock for per share consideration of $31, representing a total of approximately $44.6 billion. In the end, Microsoft and Yahoo joined forces, striking a 10-year search agreement in which Yahoo continues to maintain its own identity while Microsoft's Bing system performs all of Microsoft’s and Yahoo’s search engine work. The deal, announced in July 2009, also ensures that Microsoft keeps 12 percent of the revenue from Yahoo-driven searches.

If the AOL-Yahoo acquisition actually comes to fruition, Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL would together control about 30 percent of the U.S. search market, compared to Google's 65.4 percent stake, according to the latest figures from Comscore.

As it stands, Microsoft has earmarked $100 million for Bing marketing. And Yahoo currently boasts 96 million Yahoo Mail users in the United States, four times as many as Gmail. If AOL and Yahoo team up, it could represent one of the biggest efforts yet to challenge Google’s online business, where Microsoft has lost a reported $5 billion over the last four years.




Edited by Tammy Wolf
Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. [Free eNews Subscription]

TechZone360 Contributing Editor

SHARE THIS ARTICLE
Related Articles

Can Science Outsmart Deepfake Deceivers? Klick Labs Proposes an Emerging Solution

By: Alex Passett    3/25/2024

Researchers at Klick Labs were able to identify audio deepfakes from authentic audio recordings via new vocal biomarker technology (alongside AI model…

Read More

Top 5 Best Ways to Integrate Technology for Successful Project-Based Learning

By: Contributing Writer    3/19/2024

Project-based learning, also popularly known as the PBL curriculum, emphasizes using and integrating technology with classroom teaching. This approach…

Read More

How to Protect Your Website From LDAP Injection Attacks

By: Contributing Writer    3/12/2024

Prevent LDAP injection attacks with regular testing, limiting access privileges, sanitizing user input, and applying the proper encoding functions.

Read More

Azure Cost Optimization: 5 Things You Can Do to Save on Azure

By: Contributing Writer    3/7/2024

Azure cost optimization is the process of managing and reducing the overall cost of using Azure. It involves understanding the resources you're using,…

Read More

Massive Meta Apps and Services Outage Impacts Users Worldwide

By: Alex Passett    3/5/2024

Meta's suite of apps and services are experiencing major global outages on Super Tuesday 2024.

Read More