TIME magazine ran an interesting article in its February 18, 2008 edition about what the potential Microsoft-Yahoo merger might mean for various players.

-

Upon hearing the news a few weeks prior, I had posted an article on the same topic centered around the theme “It Just Doesn’t Matter.” The TIME article did not convince me otherwise, but it made some interesting points about how things might look. Here are my highlights from that article - presented for your edification and pleasure.

-

Naming Rights. Microsoft has not yet promised if they would even keep the Yahoo name alive. When asked directly, they simply stated that they have not yet answered that question. The TIME article proposed a sort of merger in name: Microhoo. I think it sounds like one of those creatures The Grinch used to torment.

-

Email. Yahoo and Microsoft combined would have 426 million email users (using @yahoo.com and @hotmail.com addresses.) Google’s Gmail has aroun 9 million. All three of these email services deliver ads and all have recently upped efforts to deliver contextual ads - which means ads targeted to the topics in your emails. This is perhaps the only area where MSN and Yahoo outperform Google. Will their merger mean anything ominous for Google and Gmail? Unlikely. It’s not like MSN or Yahoo’s current dominance has meant much.

-

New Ideas. Yahoo has not done anything new for years (internet years, that is -which comprise about three months or REAL human time.) MSN has not done anything new for years. By combining they gain absolutely ZERO new ideas from each other. Down at the Googleplex in California, the employees are required to spend at least 20% of their time working on new ideas

-

Advertising. If the Microsoft and Yahoo merger results in quality competition for Google Adwords, then we all come out winners. This is the one place where the deal might matter.

-

Just some thoughts about the biggest internet acquisition ever. It will be fun to watch how this all plays out and if it any of will really matter at all.

-

Here is a link to the TIME article: A Microsoft - Yahoo Deal User’s Guide