While Yahoo! Inc. plays
the pricing game with Microsoft Corp., it's still business as usual -- when it comes to smaller deals, at least. Tuesday, Yahoo! went ahead with a
$160 million deal for online video platform provider Maven Networks Inc., a transaction some thought was in
jeopardy as the firm was busy
rejecting Microsoft's $44.6 billion offer and rumors of an AOL LLC buy
surfaced.
Yahoo! has a huge library of legally licensed video content, as well as relationships with major TV advertisers. Maven brings in its own set of 30 major media companies for which it distributes video, including Fox News, Sony BMG and CBS Sports.
Yahoo! is also making headway in the mobile business. Tuesday, the company
unveiled a plan to create the first mobile product with an open architecture that aggregates communication tools -- e-mail, instant messaging, text messaging and social networks. They call it oneConnect, and it should be available in the Yahoo! Go 3.0 and Yahoo!'s new mobile home page in the second quarter.
In 2007, the company introduced Yahoo! oneSearch, an optimized search experience designed for mobile devices. Yahoo! just announced a strategic
partnership with T-Mobile to offer their customers in 11 European markets the oneSearch service. The firms also also plan to bring additional Yahoo! services including Flickr, Yahoo! Messenger, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Weather and Yahoo! Finance to T-Mobile customers.
Of course, what everyone wants to know right now is how high Microsoft will go -- $35, $37 or even $40 per share? We'll just have to keep watching that dance. -
Baz Hiralal
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