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May 15, 2003
Will Yahoo Purchase Overture?
Yahoo! priced $750 million in convertible bonds on May 1st despite having $1.5 billion in cash on hand. If you have that much cash on hand, why would you need another $750 million? This has led to speculation that the search giant may be planning a major acquisition soon. According to some analysts, the most likely target could be Overture. Overture's stock jumped 6% the following day after a long run of sagging stock values.
What does this mean to you? Well, if you like to play the stock market, Overture may be an investment worth looking at right now. It also means that Yahoo! with its strong financials and recent acquisition of Inktomi will be well positioned to compete against the rising influence of the Google juggernaut. For search engine marketers, it will most likely not spell any significant change in your strategy since Yahoo! already carries Overture listings on its site. An acquisition would simply serve to strengthen that alliance.
Overture Jumps as Yahoo! Grabs Cash
Update 6/2005: This article is provided for historical purposes. Since this article was originally published, Yahoo did end up purchasing Overture in 2003 and currently has renamed Overture to "Yahoo Search Marketing".
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