时事资讯:雅虎错失良机

【英文原文】

Yahoo's Bartz Has Missed the Boat

摘要：雅虎(Yahoo! Inc.)首席执行长巴尔茨(Carol Bartz)想以搜索交易换取微软大出血，然而事实上巴尔茨最终敲定的交易给雅虎带来的好处实在少得可怜。这笔交易没有预付现金，还让微软得到了它一直想要的东西：实际控制雅虎的搜索业务。

So much for the 'boatload of money' Carol Bartz wanted from Microsoft in return for a search deal. Instead, Yahoo's chief executive settled for a deal that wouldn't fill a bathtub. The transaction involves no cash upfront and gives Microsoft what it has always wanted: effective control over Yahoo's search business.

Given Microsoft was willing to pay nearly $48 billion for all of Yahoo in early 2008, this is quite a coup for the software giant. It can now take another crack at Google's dominance of the lucrative search market, having largely failed with its expensive in-house attempts. Google has 65% of search queries in the U.S. and 68.6% globally, according to ComScore. Yahoo's market share is 19.6% and 9%. Microsoft trails at 8.4% and 2.7%.

Yahoo's search bar will be powered by Microsoft's new Bing engine, and ads will be served against search results by the latter's advertising platform. That will finally give Microsoft the volume of search queries it needs to try narrowing the gap with Google by making its ad business more efficient.

So much for Microsoft. What does Yahoo get?

Surprisingly little. It will receive an attractive 88% of the search revenue generated from traffic through its own sites, but that is still less than the 100% it used to get. And the revenue-share deal lasts 10 years, with certain changes kicking in halfway. After that, Yahoo might have a weaker hand to renegotiate.

Yahoo, in giving up on its own technology, will help reduce capital expenditure by about $200 million a year. And the company retains its relationship with key search advertisers, giving it some continuing control over the search business. Yahoo says the deal will boost operating cash flow by $275 million a year.

The transaction will probably get through regulatory scrutiny even though it will leave only two main competitors in most markets, because it would create a more serious challenger to Google. But the deal faces many months of scrutiny -- given the Department of Justice is getting tougher and Microsoft has faced years of regulatory issues in Europe. That, and the integration risk that will come afterward, gives Google plenty of opportunity to extend its market leadership in the meantime.

But the real disappointment for Yahoo shareholders is that the company threw away its trump card so cheaply. Microsoft needed Yahoo's search business for its longer-term strategic goal of competing with Google on the Internet. That should have allowed Yahoo to force a premium price. Instead, it squandered last year's approach.

It is now hard to see a sale of the reshaped Yahoo for a good price, leaving the company to slog it out in the increasingly competitive display-advertising market. Small wonder Yahoo investors lost a boatload of money Wednesday, as shares crashed 12%.