eBay Chief Meg Whitman insists that mergers between big Internet companies are unlikely in the near term because of the difficulty of integrating brands. In recent weeks, Whitman's company has been
linked to both Microsoft and Yahoo as a target for a possible acquisition. She dismissed suggestions that this could happen, but added that the emergence of an online conglomerate with distinct brands
could. "I think multi-brand, full-service Internet companies are an opportunity," she told the
Financial Times. Meanwhile, Whitman said eBay would continue to look into acquiring smaller
companies. There's been a lot of speculation on Wall Street that major Internet companies would merge; the emergence of Google and Microsoft as the Web's most important Internet companies has forced
second-tier players like Yahoo and eBay to rethink their strategy. The recent partnership between Yahoo and eBay is one result, but Whitman maintains that the companies did not discuss a deeper
relationship. "We're pretty focused now on sort of maximizing the three businesses that we have," she said.
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