Is Microsoft Hallucinating - Or Just Planning to Buy Yahoo?

I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume that Microsoft (MSFT) division president Kevin Johnson is not a moron. So I'm also going to assume that, when Johnson said Thursday that Microsoft plans to grow its search share from 10% to 30% and its online ad share from 6%, he could not possibly be imagining that Microsoft could do this on its own.

So how could Microsoft actually achieve those goals?

Answer? (And there's only one). Buy Yahoo (YHOO).

Buying Yahoo would give Microsoft 30% search share instantly. It would also boost Microsoft's ad share close to that 40% goal.

I continue to think that a Microsoft acquisition of Yahoo would be disastrous for Yahoo (not to mention creating an annoying one-time tax hit for us long-term Yahoo shareholders). But what such an acquisition would do to Yahoo is irrelevant. If Microsoft comes in with a Murdoch-like offer, Yahoo won't be able to refuse.

Comments

[Tom B]

Let's hope they are hallucinating. I'd really hate to have to find replacements for the Yahoo services I use. It would be the first time I changed my home page since the Mosaic web browser in-- 1994, I think?

[Michael Ben-Nes]

There's only one answer?
I don't think so.