If Yahoo agrees to Microsoft’s proposed takeover, the two companies will have a lot of duplicate services to either integrate or eliminate.
In looking at the lineup published on the istartedsomething blog, it resembles the classic visual of the start of the Revolutionary War, with Redcoats and Minutemen formed in two long lines, each waiting for the other to shoot first.
Microsoft certainly opened fire this morning as they offered $44.6 billion to buy Yahoo in a cash and stock deal. Bringing the two companies together will entail figuring out what to do with the various services.
Through the all important application of synergies, Microsoft believes efficiency will generate a billion dollars, in synergy, annually. Not sure what market synergy trades on, but Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer believes in it.
Way back in the days of the Peanut Butter Manifesto, Yahoo exec Brad Garlinghouse complained of too much duplication within Yahoo itself. Yahoo slowly began addressing that over 2007, closing sites like Yahoo Photos in favor of Flickr, for example.
That’s nothing compared to what Long Zheng found in his comparison. Here’s a sample from his table of services and their Yahoo and Microsoft equivalents, respectively:
SERVICE Yahoo Side Microsoft Side
Search Yahoo Search Live Search
Casual gaming Yahoo Games MSN Games
Mapping Yahoo Maps Live Maps
Instant Messenger Yahoo Messenger Live Messenger
Mail Yahoo Mail Live Hotmail
Community Help
Service Yahoo Answers Live QnA
Photo Sharing Flickr Live Spaces
Search Advertising Yahoo Search Marketing Microsoft adCenter
Mobile Yahoo Mobile Live Mobile
Web Development Yahoo Developer Network Dev.Live.com
The product teams have their work cut out for them. Microsoft seems confident they can make it work. Yahoo will have to give it their best shot, assuming the board accepts the deal. As Long Zheng requested, don’t mess with Flickr, though.
For an opposing-opposing view, Fortune thinks only Microsoft/Yahoo can compete with Google.
