時事新聞:雅虎錯失良機
【英文原文】
Yahoo's Bartz Has Missed the Boat
摘要：雅虎(Yahoo! Inc.)首席執行長巴爾茨(Carol Bartz)想以搜索交易換取微軟大出血，然而事實上巴爾茨最終敲定的交易給雅虎帶來的好處實在少得可憐。這筆交易沒有預付現金，還讓微軟得到了它一直想要的東西：實際控制雅虎的搜索業務。
So much for the 'boatload of money' Carol Bartz wanted from Microsoft in return for a search deal. Instead, Yahoo's chief executive settled for a deal that wouldn't fill a bathtub. The transaction involves no cash upfront and gives Microsoft what it has always wanted: effective control over Yahoo's search business.
Given Microsoft was willing to pay nearly $48 billion for all of Yahoo in early 2008, this is quite a coup for the software giant. It can now take another crack at Google's dominance of the lucrative search market, having largely failed with its expensive in-house attempts. Google has 65% of search queries in the U.S. and 68.6% globally, according to ComScore. Yahoo's market share is 19.6% and 9%. Microsoft trails at 8.4% and 2.7%.
Yahoo's search bar will be powered by Microsoft's new Bing engine, and ads will be served against search results by the latter's advertising platform. That will finally give Microsoft the volume of search queries it needs to try narrowing the gap with Google by making its ad business more efficient.
So much for Microsoft. What does Yahoo get?
Surprisingly little. It will receive an attractive 88% of the search revenue generated from traffic through its own sites, but that is still less than the 100% it used to get. And the revenue-share deal lasts 10 years, with certain changes kicking in halfway. After that, Yahoo might have a weaker hand to renegotiate.
Yahoo, in giving up on its own technology, will help reduce capital expenditure by about $200 million a year. And the company retains its relationship with key search advertisers, giving it some continuing control over the search business. Yahoo says the deal will boost operating cash flow by $275 million a year.
The transaction will probably get through regulatory scrutiny even though it will leave only two main competitors in most markets, because it would create a more serious challenger to Google. But the deal faces many months of scrutiny -- given the Department of Justice is getting tougher and Microsoft has faced years of regulatory issues in Europe. That, and the integration risk that will come afterward, gives Google plenty of opportunity to extend its market leadership in the meantime.
But the real disappointment for Yahoo shareholders is that the company threw away its trump card so cheaply. Microsoft needed Yahoo's search business for its longer-term strategic goal of competing with Google on the Internet. That should have allowed Yahoo to force a premium price. Instead, it squandered last year's approach.
It is now hard to see a sale of the reshaped Yahoo for a good price, leaving the company to slog it out in the increasingly competitive display-advertising market. Small wonder Yahoo investors lost a boatload of money Wednesday, as shares crashed 12%.
【中文譯文】
雅虎(Yahoo! Inc.)首席執行長巴爾茨(Carol Bartz)想以搜索交易換取微軟大出血，然而事實上巴爾茨最終敲定的交易給雅虎帶來的好處實在少得可憐。這筆交易沒有預付現金，還讓微軟得到了它一直想要的東西：實際控制雅虎的搜索業務。
考慮到微軟在2008年初還願意支付近480億美元收購整個雅虎，這次的交易對這家軟件巨頭來說可謂得其所哉。微軟現在可以再度向谷歌(Google)在利潤豐厚的搜索市場佔據的優勢地位發起衝擊，此前微軟內部進行了代價高昂的嘗試，但基本上未能成功。ComScore的數據顯示，谷歌在美國佔有65%的搜索份額，全球爲68.6%。雅虎的份額分別爲19.6%和9%，微軟僅爲8.4%和2.7%。
雅虎的搜索欄將由微軟新推出的“必應”(Bing)搜索引擎提供支持，廣告則由微軟的廣告平臺依據搜索結果提供。這樣一來，通過提高廣告業務的效率，微軟最終將得以實現所需的搜索量，藉以試圖縮小與谷歌之間的差距。
微軟的情況就是這樣。那雅虎又得到了什麼？
簡直少得驚人。雅虎將從其自身站點瀏覽量產生的搜索收入中分得88%，這一比例還算誘人，但還是比不上以前的100%。而且收入分成協議期限爲10年，中途還會有某些變化。在那之後，雅虎重新談判的能力可能大大減弱。
雅虎通過放棄自己的技術，每年可幫助減少2億美元的資本開支。同時雅虎保持了與重要搜索廣告商的關係，從而得以繼續對搜索業務有一些控制力。雅虎稱，這樁交易將使運營現金流量每年增加2.75億美元。
這樁交易達成後，大多數市場都會只剩下兩個主要競爭對手，但即便如此，該交易仍有可能通過監管審查，因爲它會製造一個更能與谷歌匹敵的競爭對手。但考慮到美國司法部(Department of Justice)越來越強硬，同時微軟多年來在歐洲面臨諸多監管問題，這樁交易的審查過程將會長達數月之久。這種情況加上交易達成後兩家公司整合過程中將會出現的風險，將使得谷歌擁有許多機會在此期間擴大市場領先地位。
但真正令雅虎股東失望的是，雅虎如此輕易地丟掉了自己的王牌。微軟需要雅虎的搜索業務，目的是爲了在互聯網領域與谷歌競爭的長期戰略目標。雅虎本可藉此機會坐地起價。相反，雅虎卻白白放棄了去年的大好策略。
經過重組後的雅虎很難再賣出好價錢，它只能在競爭日漸激烈的展示廣告市場艱難前行。在這樣的情況下，雅虎股東周三損失慘重也就不足爲奇了，雅虎股價週三暴跌12%。
