• Traffick, Monday, April 7, 2008 12:15 PM

Microsoft has drawn a line in the sand with Yahoo regarding its acquisition offer--the price isn't going past $31 per share, and Yahoo has three weeks to make a decision. So the deal is still on--and as Andrew Goodman notes, the buy is as much about search as it is display or content.

"Yahoo is #2 in search. Microsoft is no longer a close third place in most markets. They're a distant, unimpressive third," Goodman says. Despite the millions of hours of man-power and billions(?) of dollars the software giant has invested, it can't seem to catch up with search--so CEO Steve Ballmer is willing, or desperate, as Goodman says, to buy Microsoft more market share.

And there's more at stake than just the PPC market--Goodman says that Microsoft needs a stronger search position to bolster its own brand across multiple channels. "To be able to fully and properly represent themselves, their many products and services online, they need some advertising reach and access to search visibility that isn't diabolically controlled by archenemy Google," he says. "They need access to the subtle forms of public mindshare that only search and related advertising inventory can provide."

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