By silicon.com, 14 July 2003 14:54
COMMENT Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised Yahoo has made a $1.6bn move for Overture. It's not just that Overture has been doing very well with pay-for-performance search. Nor that Yahoo - like a number of internet companies lately - has quietly been making something of a stock market come back, meaning a deal partly paid for in shares is attractive. No, the real issue here is that if Yahoo fancies itself as one of the top internet companies - certainly in there with up and down players such as MSN and AOL - it mustn't let upstarts creep up on it. Overture was one such upstart, albeit a pretty developed one, but the company which provides the context for this latest deal is clearly Google. It isn't about to sell out but as a (for now) private company, taking out an Overture isn't an option either. And that's another reason why Yahoo's timing is good. The overall feeling, however, is one of a market driven by fear, and when it comes to the internet and something as central as search, there must have been a few souls inside Yahoo as well as looking in who, in the last couple of years, must have wondered whether it will be there for the ultimate shake out. This deal goes a way to answering that question. Fear of a different kind dominates another top story today. Ernst & Young's annual global security survey shows bosses are still worried they aren't spending enough to shore up their defences. Every IT department needs funding, and funds for specific areas, but as E&Y and other experts will say, there are simple measures, measures that take little expenditure, that aren't taken. There is a need for cybersecurity - just as there is a need for locking premises' doors and knowing who you're employing. When it comes to security, unfortunately, fear will continue to be a means to open user wallets.
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