In a ready-made example of how nuanced reporting of business deals gets blown up into an online frenzy, people are weighing in on the fictitious prospect of Google buying Yahoo—a deal no one is saying will actually happen.
It started with a report in the Wall Street Journal Saturday that Google was considering providing financing to private-equity firms to help them buy out Yahoo. The headline spread on Twitter: “Google, Private Equity Firms Mull Bid For Yahoo.”
“At one point this headline would have been mind blowing, now it sounds about right,” Joseph Morone tweeted Sunday.
Some people’s minds were so blown that they skipped over the details, and interpreted the headline as Google buying Yahoo outright—as opposed to serving as the banker in the deal.
There were few shows of nostalgia for the former Web stalwart Yahoo, which has fallen on hard times in the advertising market, largely because of Google’s dominance and more recently Facebook’s rise. Sardonic jokes were more common.
“Dear Yahoo, I have never heard someone say, ‘I don’t know, let’s Yahoo it.’ Just saying. Sincerely, Google,” tweeted teenagerbook.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Google is in discussions with two private-equity firms to purchase Yahoo’s core business. Bloomberg reported that the discussions were not yet “serious.”
Others took a more cautionary tone, noting that the Journal’s report stressed that Google “may not end up pursuing a bid.” There are still several hurdles before a combined Google and Yahoo could come to fruition.
“WSJ: Goog could buy Yhoo, no way: they won’t own content (YT is a platform) and anti-trust would prevent it,” Demand Media CEO Richard Rosenblatt noted on Twitter. (Demand Media runs Google ads on its network of sites, which include eHow and Livestrong.com.)
Google was blocked by federal antitrust lawyers when it tried to sign a partnership to place ads on Yahoo sites in 2008. Yahoo signed a search-advertising deal with Microsoft the next year, and Microsoft has also expressed an interest in putting together a financing deal for Yahoo.
There has also long been talk of a merger between troubled Web giant AOL and Yahoo.
“Whether Microsoft or AOL buys Yahoo the result will be the same, they’ll all keep losing money online,” drollstevan posted on Twitter.
