It seems that most people think Microsoft have to dig a little deeper to buy Yahoo in an effort to catch up to the advances Google has made over the last few years. Having said that Bill Gates is playing it tough, saying they’re only going to make the one offer and that they can do it with our without Yahoo.
He made this quite clear in an interview with Reuters: “We can afford to make big investments in the engineering and marketing that needs to get done. We will do that with or without Yahoo.” Considering the offer totals a staggering USD$44.6 billion thats a big investment indeed.
It would appear that Microsoft is only acting tough. In fact, if they don’t buy Yahoo, they’ll have a tough time turning those 19 billion dollars into a web platform that will be a decent competitor to Google; that’s why they went unsolicited on Yahoo in the first place.
Gates, now a part-timer at Microsoft, had this to add: “There is nothing new in terms of the process. We’ve sent our letter and we’ve reinforced that we consider that it’s a very fair offer.” Meaning: it’s the only such offer you’ll get, Yahoo, and you better take it while it’s not too late. He might just be right with this one.
Interesting development to say the least and worth keeping a close eye on… but even with a Microsoft/Yahoo combination can they still catch Google?
