News
        
        Ballmer: No Talks With Yahoo on Search
        
        
        
			- By Herb Torrens
- December 08, 2008
        Steve Ballmer told 
The Wall Street  Journal on Friday that while Microsoft is open to a search advertising deal  with Yahoo, no negotiations currently are taking place. Ballmer, Microsoft's CEO, was interviewed  alongside the 
new president of Microsoft's Online Services Group, Dr. Qi Lu, who previously headed Yahoo's Engineering  and Advertising Technology Group. 
The addition of Lu marks the second high-level search expert  that Microsoft has hired away from Yahoo in the past month. In November,  Microsoft announced the hiring of Sean Suchter,  Yahoo's former vice president of search technology.
Microsoft dropped an unsolicited acquisition bid for buying  all of Yahoo in May, but Ballmer has repeatedly stressed the viability of a smaller  search ad deal.
"I think a search deal makes great sense for Microsoft,  and Yahoo, and I think I've been very open about that," Ballmer told WSJ. He said the hiring of Lu would  simplify the logistics of such an integration but that "was not a factor  in hiring Qi."
The key factor in an acquisition of Yahoo search would be  what Ballmer calls a "critical mass in the advertising marketplace." Simply  put, the two companies would have more advertisers, more "relevant ads"  and they'd be "a real credible competitor" to Google, according to  Ballmer. Google currently holds the No. 1 position in online search-engine use.
After nearly a year of courting a reluctant Yahoo, Ballmer  emphasized a seize-the-day attitude.
"I think good ideas are usually better done quickly  than slowly, so it would probably be better for both us, and certainly for  Yahoo, if we were to do it sooner than later," he said. "But at the  end of the day, that would have be something Yahoo would be as interested in as  I have expressed our interest," said Ballmer to WSJ.
Ballmer also reiterated Microsoft's go-it-alone alternative  to a search deal, in which the company would focus on the organic growth of its  search business. To that end, Ballmer said Microsoft is prepared to spend "significant  amounts of money in our online business, five to ten percent of operating  income if we had to, for the next five years."      
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
            
        
        
                
                    About the Author
                    
                
                    
                    Herb Torrens is an award-winning freelance writer based in Southern California. He managed the MCSP program for a leading computer telephony integrator for more than five years and has worked with numerous solution providers including HP/Compaq, Nortel, and Microsoft in all forms of media.