Microsoft-Yahoo: Not Again. Why Again?

一些爱情故事是永恒的。罗密欧与朱丽叶。爱洛绮斯和阿贝拉。还有微软和雅虎。在周四的纽约媒体会议上，微软首席执行长鲍尔默(Steve Ballmer)预计，在公司习惯于以低价出售自己之前，并购活动还会减少。道琼斯通讯社的一篇文章援引鲍尔默的讲话报导说，在经济重入正轨前没有人非常清楚资产价值应该是多少。但谁会需要并购交易呢？鲍尔默也激发了新一轮收购雅虎的猜测，他说他对同雅虎新任首席执行长巴茨(Carol Bartz)讨论搜索合作一事持开放态度。当然，鲍尔默的讲话没有什么新意；几个月来他一直觊觎雅虎的搜索业务，并重申了今年2月份时调整后的公司策略，即他更愿同雅虎达成搜索交易，而不是直接的收购。而且显而易见的是：从鲍尔默上次看好雅虎以来仅有的变化就是时间的流逝和雅虎迎来了一位新的CEO。新CEO可能更加包容，但时间是把双刃剑。的确，尽管微软一直青睐这家网络搜索和广告公司，但雅虎的市值却出现了下降，这会降低交易的价值。与此同时，对竞争对手谷歌市场主导地位的反垄断担忧也在上升。但在另一方面，微软和雅虎在互联网搜索市场的份额仍在下降，标准普尔分析师Jim Yin在3月11日的研究报告中预计，微软在互联网搜索引擎领域的市场份额还将继续下降。微软和雅虎在过去两年里都出现了明显的下降，目前也没有理由预计这种趋势会出现放缓或逆转。微软希望同雅虎结成搜索联盟，以在搜索业务中发展壮大。为了实现能与谷歌相抗衡的那种规模，双方可能都离不开对方。但如果两家公司不能证明他们的市场份额将出现上升，规模经济的优势可能并不足道。爬得越高，往往摔的越狠。Heidi Moore相关阅读雅虎对管理层重新洗牌 2009-02-27微软高管重视研发 愿与雅虎商谈交易 2009-02-25微软推出网络浏览器Internet Explorer 8 2009-03-19盖茨重登世界首富宝座 2009-03-12 本文涉及股票或公司document.write (truthmeter('2009年03月20日12:25', 'GOOG'));Google Inc. (Cl A)总部地点：美国上市地点：纳斯达克股票代码：GOOGdocument.write (truthmeter('2009年03月20日12:25', 'YHOO'));雅虎公司英文名称：Yahoo! Inc.总部地点：美国上市地点：纳斯达克股票代码：YHOOdocument.write (truthmeter('2009年03月20日12:25', 'MSFT'));Microsoft Corp.总部地点：美国上市地点：纳斯达克股票代码：MSFT


Some love stories are eternal. Romeo and Juliet. Heloise and Abelard. And Microsoft and Yahoo.At a media conference in New York on Thursday, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said he expects to see fewer acquisitions until companies get used to selling at lower prices. 'Nobody quite knows what asset values should be until the economy re-sets,' Ballmer is quoted as saying in a Dow Jones Newswires article.But who needs a deal? Ballmer also set off a whole new round of Yahoo speculation, saying he would be open to discussing a search partnership with Yahoo's new chief, Carol Bartz.Sure, Ballmer's statement isn't really anything new; he has been panting after Yahoo's search capabilities for months, and he reiterated at the software giant's strategy update in late February that he preferred a search deal with Yahoo but no outright acquisition. And make no mistake: the only things that have changed since Ballmer last made eyes at Yahoo is the passage of time and the fact that the Sunnyvale, Calif., company has a new chief executive.A new CEO may be more receptive, but time is a double-edge sword. Sure, while Microsoft has stalked the Web search and advertising company, Yahoo's market value has declined - which would make any deal cheaper - and antitrust concerns over the market dominance of rival Google have picked up.But on the flip side, both Microsoft and Yahoo still are losing market share in Internet search, and Standard & Poor's analyst Jim Yin expects that Microsoft 'will continue to lose marketshare in Internet search engine,' according to a March 11 research note. That decline has been visible over the past two years at both Microsoft and Yahoo, and there is little reason to expect that to ease or reverse itself.Microsoft wants a search partnership with Yahoo in order to get bigger in the search business. The companies may really need each other to achieve the kind of scale that could challenge Google. But the advantage of size may not be enough if the two companies don't prove that together their market share will rise. A bigger stone only drops harder.Heidi Moore