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Microsoft-Yahoo Deals 2008 & 2009, Side-By-Side

Danny Sullivan on July 29, 2009 at 1:08 pm

We’re about to do a call with Microsoft and Yahoo for more details about their proposed search deal. As part of that, I wanted to outline what we know so far and how that compares to the deal Microsoft made last year. At first glance, Microsoft is getting a huge bargain courtesy of the US Department Of Justice. Without Google being able to compete for Yahoo’s business, the billions that were floating around in 2008 become millions in 2009.

Note that we’ll be updating this chart throughout the day. For more background on the deal, also see our other articles today:

Feature	2008	2009
Stock Purchase	Would have purchased $8 billion worth at $35 per share, probably producing a short-term spike in value	Microsoft’s buying no stock
Search Assets	$1 billion to acquire paid and organic search. Yahoo would have been out as a search player. Right now, it’s second place with Microsoft third and yet to gain on Yahoo	Microsoft’s paying nothing for the assets
Paid Search	Microsoft powers all, presumably from blending Yahoo & Microsoft systems	Microsoft is handling all self-serve sales; Yahoo sells to undefined “premium” advertisers for undefined period of time. Appears that advertisers of both types may have to buy ads at both Yahoo and Microsoft. Boosts Microsoft share if so. Microsoft hindered with direct relationship with key clients
Organic Search	Microsoft powers all, presumably from blending Yahoo & Microsoft technology	Microsoft powers all web search; uncertain what happens with things like news search, maps, Delicious, Yahoo Directory. Uncertain what happens to Yahoo BOSS (probably goes away)
Contextual Ads	Appears Yahoo would have continued keeping this; Microsoft itself doesn’t have a substantial program	Appears Yahoo may keep this
Domain / Direct Navigation Ads	Uncertain if Microsoft would have taken this over	Appears Yahoo may keep this
Market	Worldwide	Worldwide (though uncertain about joint venture in Japan)
Term	At least 3 years	Yahoo gives up its search technology for 10 years; uncertain if it can use it again after that [and wouldn’t be that useful anyway]Microsoft pays Yahoo 88% of sales of search ads on Yahoo’s own sites [if I understand right] for 5 years Microsoft guarantees revenue per search in each country for 1 1/2 years — what that revenue is hasn’t been clearly outlined.
Guarantees	In company memo, Microsoft said it would have guaranteed Yahoo would earn more than it currently makes, for 3 years.	Seems that Microsoft will now guarantee revenues for 1 1/2 years.
Poison Pill	If Microsoft did take over Yahoo, after 10 months, it could continue the agreement with no guarantees to Google and still avoid poison pill payment	Nothing specific outlined
Financial Upside	According to Microsoft, $1 billion per year in income above current levels	Yahoo says it will boost income by $500 million [per year, one time? not said] and save $200 million in capital expenditures [one time expense?] and boost cash flow annually by $275
Other Upside	Yahoo would have no need to maintain engineering staff, infrastructure and protect against brain drain	Yahoo maintains control of a powerful search brand
Downside	Microsoft would compete with Yahoo in display area, yet Microsoft has strongly suggested search+display is a winning combination – so Yahoo would lose a key component other than “data” that would be given to them; search was main value (to me) of earlier deal at $40 billion, now only worth $9 billion?	Yahoo thought it has to own search tech back in 2004 to be successful as a search engine and a portal. So did Microsoft. Now Yahoo betting it won’t become like AOL
Anti-Trust	Yahoo & Microsoft might have had issues in email & other portal services; Microsoft expected to fight Yahoo-Google	Probably not an issue but expect Google to lob challenges
Challenges	Microsoft stays stalled in search; brains from Yahoo feel like they’re still going to Google	Up to 24 months leaves Yahoo’s future further in doubt while Microsoft continues pushing Bing

About The Author

Danny Sullivan

Danny Sullivan was a journalist and analyst who covered the digital and search marketing space from 1996 through 2017. He was also a cofounder of Third Door Media, which publishes Search Engine Land, Marketing Land, MarTech Today and produces the SMX: Search Marketing Expo and MarTech events. He retired from journalism and Third Door Media in June 2017. You can learn more about him on his personal site & blog He can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.