Comment (10)Now that Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has acknowledged that Yahoo is in fact willing to consider buyout offers, Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam has affirmed that Verizon is in fact evaluating whether or not to buy Yahoo and combine it with AOL.
Don't tell anyone, but Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy kinda like each other. Sam Malone and Diane Chambers bicker a lot, but you know what? And Rey and Finn? It seems unlikely that they're twins, so who's really going to be surprised?
That Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO) has several potential suitors was commonly assumed. The only questions were when Yahoo would put itself on the market and which companies would vie for it. The answers are now starting to emerge. (See Marissa Mayer & the Terrible, Horrible Day.)
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McAdam appeared over the weekend on CNBC's Mad Money and said Yahoo would be a good acquisition at the right price. Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) bought AOL just last year for $4.4 billion. McAdam said Verizon has been trying to lead its mobile customers to AOL services, and initial results have been encouraging.
Mayer, during Yahoo's Q4 report, said part of the company's strategy going forward will be to encourage mobile users to use Yahoo apps.
Combining mobile with apps is commonly expected to be a viable strategic avenue. Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) is doing it, as are AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) and Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT). Even the cable companies could be understood to be trying something like that strategy with their WiFi initiatives.
Which is why if Verizon wants to buy Yahoo, it might see competition from any of those companies.
— Brian Santo, Senior Editor, Components, T&M, Light Reading
