KEY POINTS:
How does this equation stack up: does software mega-giant, plus very good web search portal, beat a great web search company?
The answer is: possibly not. "M + Y is NOT greater than G", according to the bloggers watching the fascinating M&A (mergers and acquisitions) byplays involving Microsoft, Yahoo! and Google lately.
Stung by the loss of internet advertising firm DoubleClick to Google last month, Microsoft has intensified its pursuit of a deal with Yahoo!, asking the company to re-enter formal negotiations, according to the New York Post today.
While Microsoft and Yahoo! have held informal deal talks over the years, sources say the latest approach signals an urgency on Microsoft's part that has up until now been lacking.
The new approach follows an offer Microsoft made to acquire Yahoo! a few months ago, the Post reported. But Yahoo! spurned the advances of the software giant from Redmond, Washington. Wall Street sources put a roughly US$50 billion price tag on Yahoo!.
"They're getting tired of being left at the altar," said one banking source who has recently had talks with Microsoft. "They now seem more willing to extend themselves via a transaction to get into the game," reported the Post.
Microsoft does seem worried that Google is looming larger and larger in its rear-vision mirror, even muscling in on Bill Gates' company's traditional stronghold of personal and business software applications.
For example, Google is rumoured to be developing internet-based software that directly competes with Microsoft Office.
However, the mood of the IT bloggers seems to be that Microsoft is barking up the wrong tree in its quest to snuff out Google by getting into bed with Yahoo!.
As one observer put it today on Reuters' Technology Blog, "Microsoft and Yahoo! have businesses that leverage the online network. Google increasingly IS the network."
Microsoft and Yahoo! are both successful email portals, but that's not where the big money on the net is. "Search, as Google has demonstrated, is an advertising goldmine," the blog continued.
It's all about search's ability to drive traffic to the money-spinning sections of websites.
Data shows that search, amazingly, is catching up to email as the top daily online activity. And that's where Google is peerless.
And adding DoubleClick to their armoury has made Google even more dominant in that advertising-rich marketplace.
No wonder Microsoft is looking just a tad more restless than usual.
