As most have learned by now the proposed Yahoo acquisition by Microsoft seems to be toast. I guess the deal got too expensive for MS and was too cheap for Yahoo. It seemed last week they were close with MS willing to offer $33/share and Yahoo stating they were worth $37. So who is the winner and who is the loser in this deal? Personally, I think Google is the biggest loser. Yes, that right…Google. I believe Google was hoping the deal would happen because it would take MS and Yahoo’s focus away from customers, partners, and revenue, which would ultimately allow Google to take advantage. Now Google has two large and focused competitors vs. one unfocused competitor. Big mergers are tough to make work in the technology industry, mostly because of soft issues (i.e. internal politics, conflict of cultures, etc.). Look no further than the AOL Time Warner merger or Compaq/Digital for recent evidence. I have learned along the way sometimes the best deals are the deals that don’t happen. This may be the case with MicroHoo…time will tell.
