Almost feel dirty to be writing about this given the volume of news coverage the news generated (the most eloquent likely here by Paul Kedrosky), but this is clearly a good thing for everyone except Microsoft and Yahoo.
As with any merger, this means at least a year of inactivity, inertia, lack of innovation, and ultimately loss of revenue. Those who have gone through larger mergers know what it’s like. The list of those who will profit from it includes Google, of course, but also dozens of other companies that will fill the vacuum in advertising platforms that exists even now. PubMatic, Adchemy, OpenAds, AdBrite and many others will all have a good run. Keep in mind that Microsoft hasn’t even been able to make anything good out of aQuantive almost a year after that deal has finalized.
