Microsoft Walks Away from Yahoo

Well. Looks like there won't be any Microhoo after all, at least not now. Last night, Microsoft decided to walk away from their hostile takeover of Yahoo. In a statement, Steve Ballmer of Microsoft said, ""We believe the economics demanded by Yahoo! do not make sense for us, and it is in the best interests of Microsoft stockholders, employees and other stakeholders to withdraw our proposal.”

When this whole offer was first announced, I thought it was a done deal. It honestly seemed like a way for both engines to compete with Google. As time went on, though, it became apparent that Yahoo had a little more fight left in them than we thought. So for now, the three engines remain.

It will be interesting to see what Google does now. The Google/Yahoo PPC test has been going for a while, and has gotten mostly positive feedback from advertisers. Will this "test" continue, or will something unexpected happen?

Time will tell. Never a dull moment in the SEM industry!

Discussion continues at Search Engine Watch forums.