04.12.09

Carol and Carl (Bartz and Icahn) Subscribe for the Assault on Google

Posted in Google, Microsoft, Search at 5:01 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: With Carl Icahn’s endorsement and encouragement, Carol Bartz continues negotiations with Microsoft

THERE IS A LOT of coverage about Yahoo’s CEO resuming her infamous flirt with Steve Ballmer (sample reports are appended at the bottom), but one report stood out from the rest. It was Reuters (via Forbes) about Carl Icahn’s role. He is telling Yahoo to do a deal with Microsoft and he has more than a single seat in Yahoo’s board.

Right from the beginning we’ve warned about Carol Bartz because she is a former Microsoft partner [1, 2]. It turns out that we were right, based on her words and actions since [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]; her effect on Yahoo! is similar to that of Carl Icahn, who has been in regular touch with Microsoft whilst he agitated the company and pressured it to sell out to Microsoft. For some background:

Using insiders whom it planted deep inside Yahoo! (proxy fight), Microsoft is hoping to use the company merely as a tool for the destruction of Google. To make matters worse, the abusive monopolist is trying to make exactly the same deal which Google tried to make before Microsoft blocked it. Yahoo was definitely interested at the time (Yang was in charge).

Yahoo’s new CEO Carol Bartz has resumed talks with Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer about possible deals for ads, search or more, according to sources of journalist Kara Swisher. Those close to Yahoo reportedly say that Bartz, Ballmer and other officials have been investigating deals that could not only involve web ad or search partnerships but also future, broader business relationships. One example plan would have Yahoo take over display and “premium” ads while Microsoft runs search ads.

Talk about sheer hypocrisy. “Google can’t, but Microsoft can… pathetic,” wrote trmanco. █

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A Single Comment

pcolon said,

April 12, 2009 at 8:52 am

Bartz & Icahn don’t really care about Yahoo, just whatever loot they can leech off of it. If MS took control of Yahoo the winners would be Bartz, Icahn and temporarily (bragging rights), MS. The losers will be the lower echelon employees since anything MS touches dies.

They’ll be indirectly helping Google and newer entries into search & mail, i.e. gmx.com.

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