Darren O'Neill

It seems Microsoft have abandoned their attempt to purchase Yahoo… for the time being at least. I took an interest in this story as on the face of it, it seems a strange move from Microsoft. Both Microsoft and Yahoo have struggled to gain market share on Google for a variety of reasons but at a base level it is because they both have inferior search algorithms. Even working together their market share would be a distant second to Google.

It seems the directors at Yahoo were just playing hardball and had no intention of selling to Microsoft, no matter what the offer was. Their shareholders must be extremely annoyed as the price offered, for a fading brand, was extremely generous. Very few companies will be able to match it, and none probably will.

I am slightly disappointed that it didn’t work out as a Microsoft-Yahoo success story could have provided a real alternative to Google. It is always good to have choice and it would have kept Google on their toes. It is not surprising that Google tried to sabotage the deal and tell everyone that would listen that it was bad for the industry – they were hardly going to rejoice from the rooftops.

With the dividing line between application and web service becoming more blurred by the day there will be many more Microsoft (king of the desktop) vs Google (king of the web) battles I’m sure.

Tags: brand, Google, market share, Microsoft, search engine, web, Yahoo