I was wrong!

I’m sure you’ve had one of those days when you’re sure you could never get it wrong. You know the answer way ahead of everyone else. How could you ever be wrong? If your views are ever proved wrong the fragile world you’ve crafted will crumble and fall.

Ok, it’s not that bad but I was sure that Microsoft would make a more aggressive move on Yahoo. Not so. Despite Redmond upping the bid to $47.5 billion (£24.1 billion) no breakthrough was made. The major stumbling block was that Yahoo were insisting on at least $53 billion - a price Microsoft shareholders were not prepared to pay. Microsofts withdrawal was announced by Steve Ballmer in a letter to the head of Yahoo, Jerry Yang.

What now?

This leaves Microsoft with one option - go it alone. The Redmond based company has made a number of search oriented acquisitions suggesting that Microsoft were prepared to take the hard route if all else failed. Ballmer and co. will need to start moving fast. The stakes are high. The Yahoo bid was part of a Microsofts plan to gain a greater share of online advertising - a market predicted to be worth $80 billion by 2010, double that of 2007.

What about Google?

A recent announcement suggests that Yahoo will use Google ads to generate revenue. This may have been a ploy to try and throw off Microsoft. Yahoo has seen a rise in the share of the search market and will work hard to continue this trend. Don’t expect them to give Google an easy rid. There you have it, I’ve put my hand up and admitted I was wrong. But the glittering prize, to the tune of $80 billion, is still up for grabs. Let’s see how it goes.

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