Vinny Lingham's Blog

Here is a great video (it’s an hour long, but very well worth watching!) from a conference session featuring some of Silicon Valley’s top Angel investors and how they approach investment opportunities, particularly in the startup phase. It features some big names like Guy Kawasaki (who is the moderator), and Andy Bechtolsheim, who famously gave Google their first $150,000 check, before they even had a company.

Well, definitely not loyalty! Have a look at Facebook, they are still using Google Maps in the Facebook Events app (which is built by Facebook). When Microsoft paid $240m for less than 2% of Facebook, I’m pretty sure they missed that part in the fine print, or else Facebook would be using Live Maps!

Ok, so now that the word is out – let’s see how long it takes for Facebook to switch to Microsoft Live Maps! Remember, you heard it here first!

Let’s look at the math:

Microsoft does not understand search monetization.
Yahoo does not understand search monetization.

Combining the two does not mean they suddenly will. The only company laughing at all this is Google…

I’ve written extensively about how to improve search monetization but both Microsoft & Yahoo place both internal and geographical politics above efficient business (running separate bidding marketplaces per country). As long as merchants are making considerable returns from Google – they are not going to use their valuable time on other search engines. Ok, so perhaps this merger will now improve return on effort for running MSN/Yahoo campaigns by combining the traffic, but it’s still a long road ahead for the combined company if it continues to focus on running multiple bidding marketplaces.

On a lighter note, I heard a great joke today:

What do you get when you merge Microsoft & Yahoo? Microsoft

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It’s finally happened…Microsoft has made a bid for Yahoo. It’s a potential smart move on Microsoft’s part, with a really good bid that will make shareholders think. There may be some anti-trust issues as this effectively merges the #2 & #3 company in the search engine market and gives Microsoft a run on Google’s dominance in this space. It’s also puts Facebook into the Yahoo camp… I’m interested to see how this unfolds. I know people from both sides of the coin, and I think that the cultural differences will be hard to overcome. Also, it is often quoted that 70% of acquisitions fail to create value for shareholders – nearly 2-1 in odds – will this be any different?