Microsoft-Yahoo and the newspaper consortium

Cory Bergman February 4th, 2008

ContentBridge’s Ken Doctor raises some great questions about what a Microsoft-Yahoo deal would mean for the newspaper consortium. “How will newspapers exercise any change-of-control clause they have in the consortium contracts?” he writes. “At least some of the players have them, giving them a bit of leverage to renegotiate with Microsoft/Yahoo and/or Google.” Adds Alan Mutter, “With far bigger lines of business and more momentous issues at stake for Yahoo and a potential acquirer, it is not hard to imagine how the newspaper project could be overlooked, sidetracked, or, in the worst case, scuttled. Consequently, publishers would be well advised not to put all their eggs in Yahoo’s basket.”