So, Microsoft Buys AOL Now?
It’s probably just pure fantasy, but maybe the Yahoo-Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) story is actually over this time (knock on wood). If so it means that the end result of Microsoft’s 4.5 month effort was that its two biggest competitors, Google (NSDQ: GOOG) and Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO), are now in the same camp. In the meantime, the company convinced everyone that its desperate to buy its way onto the internet, so not a very nice outcome all things considered. So now it’s even more desperate, right? First thing it’ll do is pull out all the stops to prevent Google-Yahoo from happening. It may not have much of a case, but it has nothing to lose by crying bloody murder, so there’s no reason not to try. If it can delay the deal for a few months, that’s counts as a score.
MSFT-AOL?: The only other asset out there that comes close to Yahoo’s size and price is AOL (NYSE: TWX). Everyone is swimming around it, as Jeff Bewkes has said flat out. According to TechTraderDaily, Gabelli & Co. analyst Christopher Marangi is predicting such a deal in a research note this morning, saying: “AOL has its challenges, but no other available Internet asset possesses its breadth or scale… An acquisition of AOL would modestly increase MSFT
This would make a lot of sense and they wouldn't get the kind of friction they encountered with Yahoo. AOL still has some great content and ad assets.
This is just plain dumb. If you go for market share, you want big numbers and fast. You can't get them with AOL. Period. Wall Street would laugh off such a deal, and Ballmer's not that stupid.
Ballmer needs ad platform that's big. And he can't wait for it. But, it would appear he can't build it, or buy it. That leaves inventing it out of thin air.
Stranger things have happened.
It is amazing of how Microsoft is pusing hard to be the leader in the on-line industry. Still Google and Yahoo are way ahead.