Archive: December, 2008

The last post was about January 2008, the last “normal” month in the paradigm we had become accustomed to. Remember how it used to be? Four major search engines gave us a hint of competitiveness in the marketplace. The smallest of those engines, Ask.com was considered the cutting edge of search technologies and Yahoo!’s paid search marketing platform Panama was still seen a an important part of Yahoo!’s overall plan. Then February 2008 happened. The search and Internet world changed profoundly as a simple but terribly threatening phone call led us to the series of margin calls we’re witnessing today.

February 2008

Goog

$515.90/share, Feb 1

$471.18/share, Feb 28

YHOO

$28.23/share, Feb 1 (was trading at $19.18 the day before Microsoft announced take-over bid)

$27.78/share, Feb 28

MSFT

$30.45/share, Feb 1

$27.20/share, Feb 28

Feb 1 – February 1, 2008 will be remembered as one of the most important days in search history. Fueled by caffeine and a very weak Yahoo! Q4-report, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer calls Yahoo! CEO Jerry Yang with an offer Ballmer believed Yang could not refuse. The events that happened after this date are all somehow affected by that phone call.

Microsoft Makes $45 Billion Bid To Buy Yahoo
Microsoft is to bid $31 per share to Yahoo’s board of directors to purchase the company, a deal potentially worth $45 billion.