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Apple and Others Considering Bids for Yahoo?

Uhm, no

I think 44B is a huge waste to pay for Yahoo. Do they even make any money? If Apple was even remotely thinking in this area, Google would be the only logical buy or partnership. If any.
 
APPL isn't going to buy Yahoo. Alone or with Rupert. Google can't buy them there would be way too many anti-trust questions.

what's going to happen is either NewsCorp will buy them or MS will.

I'm leaning toward NewsCorp because Rupert Murdoch is giving most of his fortune to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.


Yahoo really has no choice since it's a public corporation. Any purchase/offer must go through the stockholders.

Apple and Google are too busy trying to buy up that 700Mhz auction. ;)
 
If Apple buys Yahoo, maybe .Mac mail would get a little more reliable. :p Apple would also get Flickr then.

Apple could also bid just to get Microsoft to bid more. Run up the price of Yahoo so Microsoft wastes more money on it. :D
 
GlossyIsBad4U said:
Agree, Apple doesn't have the cash to buy Yahoo.

In fact if Apple designed a portal/yahoo like service it would immediately be the best online and cost a fraction of it would be to buy Yahoo.

Plus Safari web browser and games would work correctly on a Mac for a change.
Click to expand...

Or how about them continuing to fix dotmac. Its better than it used to be but it still needs a lot of improvement.
 
fivepoint said:
Not true. This is a move towards a hostile takeover. All microsoft (or whoever decides to buy) has to prove is that the stockholders of Yahoo! would be better off if it were purchased. Yahoo! and it's board may not have a choice.

This has happened many times in the past. Wikipedia it.
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It's not hostile unless Yahoo says no and MS still goes after Yahoo.
 
jne381 said:
I call BS on this story. There is no reason Apple would jeopardize its good relations with Google in order TRY save a failing Yahoo, and possibly be taken down by it.

I think it is a mistake for Microsoft as well, but Microsoft may be able to use some of their vast resources to make a go of it.
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Yahoo is far from failing. It's fourth-quarter profit was $205.7 million.
 
MacTO said:
I am sure that Steve Jobs and people at Apple have thought of jumping into it more than we can imagine. However, when the working relationship with others, such as Google for one with iPhone, pays off both ways, why would we think that Steve Jobs wants to throw the balance...? Even though .Mac is not as appealing as they hope, I am sure, if they knew how, they would've acted more aggressively. But who knows? They might in the near future. That's my 2 cents. :cool:

Cheers! :apple:
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Three ideas keep me from dropping the dream...
1. You can't just say Google is the 800lb gorilla, so you can never challenge them. I remember when Yahoo! was that gorilla and Google came from nowhere.
2. Again, the MP3 player argument. Apple could make a better Yahoo! or Google IMHO.
3. Name brand recognition. Apple did it's own browser. It's taken about 5 years to get to 7% market share. Yet they still try. .Mac still virtually unknown to non-mac folks (I still can't iChat with anyone but Mac people :(). But if Apple bought a name, which is kinda new territory for them, well that changes everything.

And three ideas keep me from dreaming deeper...
1. Bad investment
2. Bad investment
3. Bad investment
The value in that name is high, but not $44B

So the simple question to ask yourself is, would iYahoo! sell more iMacs, iPhones, iPods, etc.?
 
Does google even have the money to take over yahoo? I read somewhere that google don't make as much money as yahoo (although still a lot), despite having such a large market share.

I don't think apple would really be interested in this, nor would they have enough money to do it on their own. Too large a step to take if they were to venture into the web-based market in a larger way. They would probably buy up smaller companies first, in my opinion.
 
cgc said:
Although I really like Yahoo, I wouldn't want Apple to buy them. I always thought Google and Apple would be the best match due to innovation, attention to details, etc.
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I definitely agree, and I don't think that Apple needs to go around buying other companies out, especially fully established ones such as Yahoo!. Apple when they buy out companies, tend to go for the more young, innovative organizations that can prove a benefit to their product line. Adding Yahoo! to Apple, is like throwing a monkey wrench in the situation. Apple doesn't need Yahoo, and Yahoo doesn't need Apple. If Microsoft want's to screw with Yahoo!, go ahead, but it just doesn't make sense for Apple to make a move like this. Since '97, they have been strictly dedicated on their specific product lines, and I hope they continue to do that, because it's really working for them. Yahoo! would be random, unless they're going to somehow make it to where it will improve .Mac or something like that, which I highly doubt. & Yahoo seems to be preferred by Windows users, and have strong relations with the Windows Community. Yeah, I doubt this will ever happen.
 
nomar383 said:
Microsoft just seems to have money to burn. I feel like there was a board meeting and someone was like "Hey, we should try and do a hostile takeover of something this week." And someone else was like "For sure." Then they took out a newspaper and threw a dart at the stock page landing on YHOO. "Done deal, take her down." lol
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Honestly, I think it's more like this than most people suspect, but Yahoo! is a legitimate target. Personally, I believe a lot of this is being done for (1) tax reasons and (2) because the dollar isn't performing as well as in the past. This is a great way to take some reserves out of cash while the market is low (so you get more for your weakened dollar). It also converts your cash into a capital asset, which has some huge potential benefits for a corporation (though not as much as it would have for an individual). This doesn't even take into account the other beneficial tax implications of such a buyout.

I can definitely see this being more of a tax adviser/accountant decision with a sensible target than a purely business decision.
 
JG271 said:
Does google even have the money to take over yahoo? I read somewhere that google don't make as much money as yahoo (although still a lot), despite having such a large market share.

I don't think apple would really be interested in this, nor would they have enough money to do it on their own. Too large a step to take if they were to venture into the web-based market in a larger way. They would probably buy up smaller companies first, in my opinion.
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No, google makes some $16 billion in advertising a year. Much more than Yahoo could say. However, for people to think Apple has $44.4 billion dollars in the bank to outbid Microsoft is a huge mistake. Microsoft, likely Apple's biggest competitor would NEVER let that happened. They got outbid on the bid for YouTube. They got outbid for Myspace. They won't get outbid this time. Especially considering how ridiculously much money is exchanging hands here. And we know no one has deeper pockets than Microsoft in this regard.
 
DTphonehome said:
I agree with most of what you said, but not the last point. YHOO shareholders may not like the idea of MS running the show, but they will LOVE the idea of a 60% premium on their stock price, and will HATE the idea of losing it in a flash if the deal is voted down. The few shareholder who have genuine loyalty to the brand probably don't have enough power to prevent a "yes" vote.
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Well the really interesting thing is that after the offer was announced most of that premium disappeared. YHOO was up almost 50% after the announcement. Of course, if the deal goes away, so may the gain, but the premium is no longer anywhere near where it was initially.
 
riversky said:
Haha, I don't think Apple would want Yahoo because they are not in the search business.

But if they did buy Yahoo I would love to see them rebrand it .Mac!!!
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Think Apple would be better served spending a mere $1b on adding features to .Mac and promoting that...

Let MicroSoft have Yahoo! When the dust settles it isn't going to be chairs getting thrown out...
 
Syrus28 said:
No, google makes some $16 billion in advertising a year. Much more than Yahoo could say. However, for people to think Apple has $44.4 billion dollars in the bank to outbid Microsoft is a huge mistake. Microsoft, likely Apple's biggest competitor would NEVER let that happened. They got outbid on the bid for YouTube. They got outbid for Myspace. They won't get outbid this time. Especially considering how ridiculously much money is exchanging hands here. And we know no one has deeper pockets than Microsoft in this regard.
Click to expand...
True.

You what would be a hilarious outcome here though? If the price keeps going up and up and Microsoft has to partially bankrupt themselves to purchase it. Then, if it turns out (like many suppose), that the merger doesn't give them much of a boost over Google and Apple at all, this might be the biggest financial blunder in history.

It would be ironic and yet strangely fitting for Microsoft to end up destroying itself through the exact same corporate behaviour that they have kept themselves alive with all this time. :)
 
I'm sure all the big players are contemplating a rescue of Yahoo! from the jaws of Microsoft, but I think it's as much an emotional reaction as anything else. Yahoo!, despite being a bit hapless, is coming off as the victim here while Microsoft looks incredibly evil, incredibly stupid, or both.
 
I seriously doubt Apple would go down this line, I think the Yahoo! purchase on behalf of Microsoft has unnerved a few competitor (as it should).

I really think many companies are just testing the water and trying to see how deep the pockets of Microsoft really are before making an informed decision on what to do.

This is very similar in what just recently happened with the Rio Tinto buy in for BHP, BHP looked like the only possible player in the buy in however two days ago Alcoa beat BHP to the post in injecting some capital into to Rio Tinto.

IMHO the Yahoo! buyout war has just begun and there are plenty of big non-M$ companies out there who have very deep pockets and would love to get an organisation like Yahoo! into their portfolio. It really wouldn't surprise me if Newscorp make an offer.
 
I'm fearing Yahoo! accepting the partnership with Microsoft for many reasons:

1. My email account is BT Yahoo!
2. Flickr is owned by Yahoo!
3. Apple has integrated Yahoo! services in their products like:

Flickr in the tv and Mail, weather and search on the iPhone/iPod touch.

Thats why I think apple should buy Yahoo!
 
ppc_michael said:
Why are there positive ratings? The article with Microsoft buying Yahoo was all negatives, with everyone going "ew Yahoo" and now that Apple and Yahoo are mentioned in the same sentence, everyone's happy?
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The whole ratings thing is goofy anyway.
What is 'postive' supposed to mean?
-the article made me feel warm and fuzzy?
-the article was accurate?
-the article taught me something?
-the article reinforced my preconceptions?

Not sure of the point, other than a wizzy feature for feature's sake.
 
Virgil-TB2 said:
I don't think you are thinking straight here. Or perhaps you have never used .Mac?
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Yeah, you got me. The thought I didn't convey clearly was that if you took Yahoo! and made it more Mac OS X like, then it might be a nice web portal. I didn't mean to suggest that .Mac wasn't OS X focused as it obviously is.
 
Anywho

Yes, forty-someting billion, bid, microshaft..whatever, whatever. Wake me up when the new macbook pros come out.
 
JG271 said:
Does google even have the money to take over yahoo? I read somewhere that google don't make as much money as yahoo (although still a lot), despite having such a large market share..
Click to expand...

OK, I have to ask this, not as a picky grammar-police thing, but as a British vs American English thing.

I seem to have noticed recently a UK thing of considering company names as plural. In fact, now that I've noticed that, I seem to be seeing it everywhere in UK posts...
Why "Google don't" instead of "Google doesn't". Google is A company.


Just thought I'd ask. Really curious.
:)
 
FakeWozniak said:
Three ideas keep me from dropping the dream...
1. You can't just say Google is the 800lb gorilla, so you can never challenge them. I remember when Yahoo! was that gorilla and Google came from nowhere.
2. Again, the MP3 player argument. Apple could make a better Yahoo! or Google IMHO.
3. Name brand recognition. Apple did it's own browser. It's taken about 5 years to get to 7% market share. Yet they still try. .Mac still virtually unknown to non-mac folks (I still can't iChat with anyone but Mac people :(). But if Apple bought a name, which is kinda new territory for them, well that changes everything.

And three ideas keep me from dreaming deeper...
1. Bad investment
2. Bad investment
3. Bad investment
The value in that name is high, but not $44B

So the simple question to ask yourself is, would iYahoo! sell more iMacs, iPhones, iPods, etc.?
Click to expand...

First, I do not disagree with you on the first three ideas you mentioned.

Yes, I am sure that nobody expected back in 1999 that the day of Yahoo! being on the verge of being acquired by MS would've come to this day (Whoever could foresee any longer than 9 years). So, who knows what's going to happen to Google in another 8 or 9 years. Seriously.

Apple innovates itself over and over again, and I believe that's how it stands where it stands today. Yes, it sort of revolutionized how we purchase music nowadays, but as we all know, this isn't the only way for Apple to stay on top in terms of music (and hopefully movie rental and whatnot) business. How it will hold its market shares in the specific field as strong as it's been in the next few years is any body's guess, considering that fact that everybody is jumping on board on this DRM-Free MP3 music download.

The reason why .Mac isn't as successful as it should, IMHO, is that it is only limited to Mac, like you pointed out. Look at iTunes. Because it's allowed to be installed on PC as well, it is one of the popular tools for downloading music. Question is would Steve Jobs make .Mac available for everyone? I doubt it. At least not until, as we all hope, Mac is ubiquitous.

If I am not mistaken, based on one of those Steve Jobs interviews that I watched, he is not keen on attacking (or crushing) other companies in order to expand Apple's market shares. (Or at least that's how it appeared so.) His genuine ideas come from true innovation. Otherwise, I don't think he would stay on pay roll of $1 per year. (His shares in stock and whatnot is still just numbers on paper. Until he liquidates them all.) Of course, when such innovation is successful, revenues and profits will increase, and it'll make its shareholders and investors happy campers.

Once again, I do not disagree with you at all. I just think that Apple is a kind of company that looks for innovative ways to move forward. That's all.

Cheers! :apple:

P.S. I can't imagine, really, iYahoo! at all. :D
 
Nope.

Not Apple.

Newscorp thinks it's too rich.

Only ones considering it are equity dudes at firms like KKR, etc. But the debt market is too ugly.

Microsoft is going to get to buy Yahoo as long as the governments allow it.

And this is the end of Yahoo & Microsoft. It'll kill both companies.

So sad. Yahoo could really turn around with real leadership.
 
GQB said:
I seem to have noticed recently a UK thing of considering company names as plural. In fact, now that I've noticed that, I seem to be seeing it everywhere in UK posts...
Why "Google don't" instead of "Google doesn't". Google is A company. )
Click to expand...

I've seen Americans use the singular for companies. How strange. Google is a company.

There are plenty of plural-only words in English. Like trousers, glasses, scales. And companies. Trousers have two legs. Glasses have two glasses. Scales used two have two scales. "Company" means among other things "a number of individuals gathered together, esp. for a particular purpose".
 
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