Microsoft Considering Yahoo! Bid

Stockholders today are speaking about several things when it comes to big internet-born companies, the biggest news here being Microsoft's possible future purchase of Yahoo! It seems that as Yahoo!'s former chief exec Carol Bartz exits and their board hires several banks (reportedly) to help them decide what to do with the company, like sell it, Microsoft is apparently speaking internally about picking up the group for a pretty penny. On the other hand, AOL appears to be a less than appealing choice for a purchase than Yahoo! as the source for this story speaks about below.

A source speaking with Business Insider spoke of a "definite" set of talks about consolidation of the groups, be they Microsoft and AOL, Microsoft and Yahoo!, or others. Speaking anonymously for fear of being chopped into a million pieces for revealing said information, this BI trusted source spoke thusly on the matter:

"Definitely, people are talking about it. People generally expect AOL to come apart one way or another. I don't think that's an interesting asset. It's just been so beaten down. Yahoo is a lot more interesting. If it comes into play, then at least their U.S. media business is a pretty interesting asset. It's complicated because of those Asian assets."

This same source also spoke on how Microsoft is re-evaluating how powerful MSN is and how crucial it is to have MSN help Bing "win." Ex-AOL rep Ted Cahall recently came to Microsoft and turned MSN around to make it the growing business it is today. In the face of lowering stocks and reports of less than positive inner-workings going on, this is all great news for Microsoft's online devision. The source noted:

It's not every day that you watch both of your competitors blow themselves up. It's like watching a train wreck. ... The portal space is challenged. Facebook is just absorbing more and more minutes – usage. That's having an effect on portals. The time shifting toward mobile is another factor weighing on portals. The problems AOL and Yahoo have are exacerbated by management."

What do you think? Microsohoo!? Perhaps the key to making both AOL and Yahoo! prosperous to a giant degree again is to give the big ax to the entire management board? Microsoft, can you do it?

[via Business Insider]