Erick Schonfeld currently works at TechCrunch as Co-Editor. He joined in 2007 and is based in New York. Schonfeld oversees the editorial content of the site, selects and edits guest posts, helps to program the Disrupt conferences and CrunchUps, produces some TCTV shows, and writes daily for the blog. He is also the father of three... ? Learn More
Reports are coming out that AOL is talking to Yahoo’s bankers about merging the two companies in the wake of Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz getting canned. We have an independent source who confirms discussions are happening, but it is not clear how serious they are. If a deal does go through, the likeliest scenario would be Yahoo acquiring AOL, with Tim Armstrong becoming the new CEO. (Disclosure: AOL owns TechCrunch).
While a combination of AOL and Yahoo is always an option, with the main advantage being that it solves Yahoo’s leadership search problem if Armstrong becomes the CEO, it is not a particularly good option. Two dogs don’t make a right (at least in the eyes of Wall Street).
It is also not a new option. Every couple of years, bankers raise the AOL-Yahoo trial balloon. The main argument for a merger is that it would give the combined company even more scale in terms of online advertising inventory. But as I wrote last time this trial balloon was raised:
Buying scale makes sense to some extent. And Yahoo buying AOL, rather than the other way around, would make even more sense and be a lot cleaner. . . . But there are downsides as well. While Yahoo and AOL are distracted with firing people and integrating business units and backend technologies for at least two years, the Internet will continue to move ahead without them. Big mergers rarely work out well.
While it might look convincing enough on paper, what . . . two aging portal players proposing to prop each other up . . . really have to ask themselves is this: Do they want to merge with the past, or invent the future? Merging doesn’t help them with social. It doesn’t help them with search. It doesn’t help them with mobile, and it barely helps them with local. It only helps them with one thing: scale. And that may no longer be enough.
In other words, the risks of a messy integration are too high. And it is not clear how such a merger positions either company for a brighter future.
Photo credit: Melanie Burger
AOL is a global advertising-supported Web company, with display advertising network in the U.S., a substantial worldwide audience, and a suite of popular Web brands and products. The company’s strategy focuses on increasing the scale and sophistication of its advertising platform and growing the size and engagement of its global online audience through leading products and programming. On March 13, 2008, AOL Internet division announced their plans to buy social network Bebo for $850 million in cash. History of Aol: AOL was...
Learn more IPO: December 4, 1996, Nasdaq:YHOO Yahoo was founded in 1994 by Stanford Ph.D. students David Filo and Jerry Yang. It has since evolved into a major internet brand with search, content verticals, and other web services. Yahoo! Inc. (Yahoo!), incorporated in 1995, is a global Internet brand. To users, the Company provides owned and operated online properties and services (Yahoo! Properties, Offerings, or Owned and Operated sites). Yahoo! also extends its marketing platform and access to Internet users beyond Yahoo! Properties through its distribution network...
Learn more View the original article here
This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.
