Yahoo! Gets Bigger

Yahoo! Gets Bigger by Mike Banks Valentine
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License

If anything can be said of Yahoo! it is that they are big. Now they are bigger. This week Yahoo! went public with the news that they hope to acquire Inktomi search services. The biggest gets bigger by purchasing what they don't already own.

"The addition of Inktomi's search platform adds both control and flexibility to this important business, thus enhancing our ability to create new and more innovative search offerings for consumers and businesses."
Terry Semel, Yahoo! chairman and CEO

CEO Semel could have been announcing the purchase of GeoCities free web sites by saying much the same thing.

The addition of GeoCities free web sites adds both control and flexibility to this important business, thus enhancing our ability to create new and more innovative free web sites for consumers and businesses.

How about announcing that Yahoo! would buy WebRings?

The addition of WebRing's linked topics adds both control and flexibility to this important business, thus enhancing our ability to create new and more innovative linked topic sites for consumers and businesses.

Maybe the announcement that Yahoo! would buy eGroups?

The addition of eGroups's list service adds both control and flexibility to this important business, thus enhancing our ability to create new and more innovative list groups for consumers and businesses.

Then there was Yahoo's purchase of HotJobs recruitment services just last December.

The addition of HotJobs' recruitment site adds both control and flexibility to this important business, thus enhancing our ability to create new and more innovative job search offerings for consumers and businesses.

A quick peek at the Yahoo timeline offers insight into their growth strategy when the word "acquire" appears fifteen times on the page, "acquisition" four times.

http://docs.yahoo.com/info/pr/milestones.html

As a matter of fact, Yahoo! has so its fingers in so many pies that it requires a separate page to list all the varieties and flavors of business it has consumed. There are over 100 links to Yahoo! "properties" on the page.

http://docs.yahoo.com/docs/family/more.html

My biggest question about this admittedly big concern is . . . what business is Yahoo! in? The answer could be one word of three letters. A-d-s, since this is the core of their business model. More advertising means higher profits and Yahoo has clung tenaciously to this business model, even though that strategy has sunk many other web businesses.

But then Yahoo! describes themselves as follows ...

"Yahoo! Inc. is the Internet's leading global consumer and business services company"

http://docs.yahoo.com/info/misc/overview.html

Huh?

That could mean almost anything you want it to say about a company that lacks focus, purpose and relevance. Oops! Did I say that? Someday I'll tell you what I really think. Yahoo! may as well use that generic press release with CEO Stemel saying, "We're BIGGER than you!"

The purchase of Inktomi Search Services may allow Yahoo! to search for their own purpose and relevance.

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/24/business/24PLAC.html
http://www.inktomi.com/company/news/press/2002/yahoo.html
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-978692.html
http://www.internetwk.com/breakingNews/INW20021223S0004
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/4804953.htm
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