The New York Times reports that Microsoft is going to raise its bid for Yahoo by a few dollars. They quote an unnamed source, but seem to be pretty confident that Microsoft is upping the ante a bit.
Microsoft, which had threatened to abandon its bid, has increased its offer “by several dollars,” this person said. The merger talks represent an enormous breakthrough following weeks of behind-the-scenes discussions without any progress. Exact terms being discussed could not be learned.
So much for all the posturing from them this week, and petulance displayed by Yahoo. As they say, if the price is right…
Kara Swisher says that Yahoo is looking for a cushion because they think that the Email monopoly that would ensue following the Microhoo deal is going to cause problems.
That’s because Microsoft and Yahoo completely dominate all mail on the Internet. According to the most recent ComScore figures, for example, Yahoo has 256.2 million users, while Microsoft has 254.6 million. Google is a distant third with 91.6 million users and AOL has about half that at 48.9 million.
At least Google gives IMAP and POP access for any generic reader. Last I looked, Microsoft still didn’t allow anything but Outlook or HTML to access its mail servers. Makes me wonder why Google mail hasn’t already taken over the competition; perhaps it’s a more elite core user base.
Also, Hotmail and Yahoo have been around for a much longer time and many of their e-mail addresses are abandoned or multiples of a single person. I’m not saying that Google doesn’t have multiples, but it’s bound to be much fewer.