Do you have a search site? Submit it free to the internet's best search industry directory. » Click Here Search Engines Google, Yahoo, MSN... Search Marketing Marketing, Budget, Planning... Pay Per Click Bid, Price, Quality... SEO Companies Optimization, Manage, Company... SEO Tools Track, Search, Create... Analytics Statistics, Counter... » Submit your site for FREE « More... Get Your Site Submitted for Free in the World's Largest B2B Directory! Email Address: * URL: * *Indicates Mandatory Field Terms & Conditions Titan Quest Forum Nintendo Wii Graphics Forum Halo 3 Forum Mac Software

...youll let them make the money for you.

Actually, other than the admitting you suck and your competition is so good, that doesnt sound like an entirely bad idea, does it? I mean, using the competition to increase your profits could potentially be a good thing.

Potentially. For the most part, however, Yahoos decision on a non-exclusive search advertising deal has met with pretty much universal scorn. A sampling of headlines:

• TechCrunch: Massive Destruction Of Shareholder Value, Employee Morale and Internet Balance Of Power
• Mathew Ingram: Yahoo opens Google AdSense account
• CNET: Is resurrection possible in technology?
• Texas Startup BlogHate is stronger than greed!
• AllThingsD: Yahoogle?: Microsoft Will Let Loose the Dogs of War (Dont worry, Kara Swisher didnt misquote Shakespeare; that was a statement from a Microsoft employee to her. For future reference, its let slip the dogs of war.)
• GigaOM: Oow, Eew, OuchYahoo!

Not overly enthused, eh, blogosphere?

The universal sentiment is probably best expressed in TCs headline: rather than preserving value to shareholders, as Yahoo has long claimed to try to do, this only reemphasizes how short theyve fallen to Google.

But at least one prominent tech blogger doesnt think its a bad thing: Henry Blodget. With the headline All Right, Yahoo Bashers, Put a Sock In It: This Is a Good Deal, he pretty much lays out his own argument. But because I like you, Ill tell you the rest of it (abridging liberally, emphasis added):

In this deal, Yahoo gets:

• $250-$450 of additional free cash flow in Year 1.
• More cash flow in years 2-4, as the deal ramps and Yahoos search-query share remains meaningful
• The ability to maintain or phase out Panama as it sees fit.
• The ability to strike a death-blow to the one other player in the search market with any kind of meaningful share"Microsoft.
• The freedom to focus on display advertising and AMP, Yahoos new display serving platform.

When you look at it that way, it really doesnt sound quite as awful. But, Blodget acknowledges, the deal wont save Yahoo. Yahoos days in the search business are numbered, But . . . Yahoo can now focus almost all of its efforts on revitalizing its properties and display business, which is where its future lies.

So what do you think: Good idea or bad idea?

Del.icio.us

Digg

Reddit

Furl