Yahoo's in the crapper right now. After CEO Carol Bartz announced she was fired, Yahoo's been exploring how to remain afloat in today's digital climate. AOL's said to be interested in swallowing them up, but now Microsoft might bid to buy them out again — the second time since 2008.
Obviously, Yahoo rejected Microsoft's $44.6 billion bid to buy them out and things are the way they are today. Instead, Microsoft managed to cut a deal with Yahoo to have Bing power its search. That's not enough, though.
A BusinessInsider source claims the Redmond-based giant is "definitely" in talks about buying Yahoo. Complete ownership of Yahoo might seem useless since Microsoft has its own MSN portal, but imagine what a huge conglomerate that would look like. That's more advertisements, more eyeballs, more traffic — more space to hock Xbox Live, etc.
Microsoft's an old dinosaur. It's behind in the search world and has even been accused of copying Google's algorithms and it's only now getting into the tablet war — two years too late *cough*iPad*cough*, when the first Windows 8 tablets ship next year.
That's not to say Microsoft hasn't done great things either. Despite poor Windows Phone 7 sales, it struck a huge deal with Nokia to develop smartphones with its mobile OS, bought Skype and is smacking its competitors around with its Xbox 360 sales, month after month.
Only time will tell if Microsoft's "talks" lead anywhere. Once upon a time, Yahoo did its own thing. Now it's connected with Facebook and Twitter, powered by Bing and all sorts of stuff. It's not its own thing anymore. A buyout by Microsoft could give Yahoo more focus — something it desperately needs right now.
BusinessInsider, via SlashGear
