[dundee] Google's Response to the MS bid for Yahoo

[Barry Carr]

> 
> I agree that Murdoch owns too much of the media, but he and others
> risk being eclipsed by Google as the future of advertising and media
> is online.  Do we really want Google to own this space?  IMHO
> Murdoch+Yahoo! would provide Google with some stronger competition
> than MS+Yahoo, with less chance of them trying to leverage other
> aspects of the tech business.
> 
> The social networking site was myspace btw.
> 
> All I want is a healthy market in both media and technology (which are
> rapidly becoming the same thing).  I'd obviously rather a 3rd option,
> but I can't see anyone else who's likely to make the acquisition at
> anywhere near that price.
> 
> I guess what I'd actually prefer is Yahoo! to sort themselves out and
> compete without a merger, but they've been in trouble for a long time
> and despite numerous board-level strategies have been unable to turn
> themselves around.
> 
TBH, I'm not sure which is worse, Murdoch+Yahoo or MS+Yahoo. The former would be less 
technologically invasive, as you said. However, its recognised that Murdochs papers can make or 
break a political party in the UK as a whole (not too sure about Hollyrood or any other country 
where he has media interests); anyone remember the '97 election "Its the Sun what dunnit", or some 
such. Now, if Murdoch owns a search engine, whats to stop him from skewing results that put him in 
favourable light or are biased to his current political agenda? A Murdoch acquisition of Yahoo may 
have less impact on us as techies, but I think the social and political implications are far more 
serious. Assuming he can attract people to use his search engine.

I agree that Google needs a strong competitor, a monopoly serves no one other than the monopoly 
itself and then only in the short to medium term before hubris sets in and the thing stagnates. But 
I think that Google already has this market sown up. Google is such a strong brand ATM that I 
imagine they have considerable goodwill in the minds of their users, so unless they do something 
heinous it won't matter who owns Yahoo, Google will continue to be the market leader. And as history 
has shown over and over again, its not the best product that wins its the best marketed that wins. 
So even if Yahoo+AN Other create a search engine far and away better than Google's is probably won't 
matter. I think this is the beginning of the end for Yahoo, regardless who buys them.

As for a healthy market, well we'd all like one of those, but the all currently players are 
interested in is monopoly. You only have to look at the likes of Oracle, MS, Ford (they own Volvo, 
Mazda, Jaguar and Land Rover), General Motors (Vauxhall, Opel, Saab), Volkswagen (Audi, Skoda, Seat, 
Porshe, Lamborghini and Bugatti), Newscorp & Coca-Cola.

Cheers
Barry

> --
> Rick Moynihan
> rick.moynihan at gmail.com
> http://sourcesmouth.co.uk/blog/
> 
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