Google to Rescue Yahoo from Microsoft’s Clutches?

Google executives have said that they would like to tie-up with fellow search engine business, Yahoo. A link-up with Google would be very important to Yahoo, which is currently trying to fend off aggressive takeover bids from Microsoft.

Takeover discussions over a full merger between Microsoft and Yahoo collapsed earlier in the month. However, while they were still ongoing, Google started a small trial of some of its technology on Yahoo's US site. By doing this, it was widely regarded that Google were offering Yahoo boss Jerry Yang an olive branch. At the Google Zeitgeist conference in Britain yesterday, Google executives said that they were willing to work more closely with Mr Yang.

When he was asked how the trials had gone, Google co-founder Sergey Brin said that it was “good to work” with Yahoo and that he hoped to work with them again. He said: “Primarily we learned it was good to work with them again ... and they have a very similar story to us and things went very well with that test so we would be very excited to work with them again.”

Although nothing has been confirmed so far, it is thought that Google discussed a full-scale tie-up with Yahoo last month and that a deal is already on the table and ready to be announced in a matter of weeks.

If a deal is reached between the two of them, Google could benefit just as much as Yahoo. After all, if a merger between Microsoft and Yahoo were successful, it would challenge Google’s dominance in the online search engine market. Indeed, when asked who he thought Google's biggest competitor would be, Google chief executive, Eric Schmidt admitted: “Eventually, I think it is obvious that it will be Microsoft, based on their actions.”

Source:

Guardian