In the Troy of the internet networking industry, Yahoo seems to be the very sought after Helen, pursued by two titans, Microsoft and Google, one trying to convince her to marry and the other trying to deter that. The proposed alliance between Yahoo and Microsoft and now the open condemnation of Google and its unceasing efforts to restrain this alliance from becoming a reality has amounted to a Trojan War situation, the outcome of which seems to rely on the sole decision of Yahoo although the $44.6 billion bid would not be an easy bait to resist.
A twist in the story is currently being seen as Google is trying its best to convince Yahoo out of this stipulation giving the reason that it would pose serious threats to the competitive nature of the industry, its openness and innovation. Google is keeping a continuous watch over the situation and seems to be suggesting Yahoo, ways that would help it to resist the irresistible bid. This is suggestive of hypothetical alliances or some kind of partnership between the two with the help of AOL, as Google owns five percent of its shares.
Although big shots like AT&T, Comcast and Times Warner do not intend to join the bidding war, there seems to be a possibility for this if there is a speculated Yahoo fragmentation or break up. Google has also extended its arguments against Microsoft to the extent of accusing the company of illegally capturing the market of personal computers. Google’s senior vice-president David Drummond exclaimed the argument in his words,
“Could Microsoft now attempt to exert the same sort of inappropriate and illegal influence over the Internet that it did with the PC?”.
But it seems that Yahoo is not very impressed by Google’s effort to ward of this solicited bid, as it has denied any statement which refers to low market competition. In lieu of this, Microsoft has asserted that the alliance would definitely lead to more competitive market as there would be more potent search engines and online advertising scope. But this seems to be negative and threatening feature for Google as its share of online business will reduce considerably. Now with Yahoo taking its own time to decide whether it will take the bait or not, it seems to be very disconcerting and testing time for Google as well as the market.
Via: IHT
