From: The Street
Antoine Gara
10/25/11 – 03:24 PM EDT
NEW YORK (TheStreet) Yahoo!’s chances of a successful and profitable sale for its weary shareholders rests on Google , Uncle Sam and Facebook.
Yahoo!’s future depends on how much regulators want Google’s overall online ad dominance to be challenged and whether as a result of Facebook’s emergence, they’re willing to say online search and display ad businesses aren’t distinct competitive markets. If they are treated as independent markets by authorities, the only Yahoo merger rumor that increases competitiveness against Google is an AOL purchase — a plan managements rumored to be considering as a growth strategy, but that might take the wind out of a takeover fueled stock surge since August.
