There was an issue regarding Microsoft’s bid towards Yahoo for $44.6 billion. It resulted in sleepless days for the people in the tech world who were anxiously waiting for Yahoo’s response. However, finally Yahoo made a decision and officially rejected that offer a few of weeks ago. According to Yahoo, Microsoft’s bid was rejected as their proposal value was less than Yahoo’s market value. While the entire tech world was concentrating on the Microsoft-Yahoo issue, I came across a suggestion that Nokia should bid on Yahoo, which was posted by Stephen Wellman in Information Week. He mentioned that there are six reasons for Nokia to bid Yahoo. They are:
I think it is a waste for Nokia to pay about $44 billion just for these six reasons to bid Yahoo. There are so many options for Nokia to achieve those goals without Yahoo. First of all, why would Nokia need to be a Web Company? Most of the web tasks these days can be done using mobile, e.g. browsing, email service, online games etc. So, I’m pretty sure in future almost all of the desktop tasks can be done on mobile phones.
Why Nokia needs to beat Google Map by combining Navteq and Yahoo in it? Most of the users are much comfortable with Google Map for mobile with My Location Technology. It helps users to let them know where they are on the map; even their phone doesn’t have Global Positioning Satellite (GPS). At the same time, most of the travelers in Japan, Europe and North America are increasingly using the GPS mechanism for travel. With all these efficient and popular systems available, why Nokia needs to have an own map guide? It can be easily get Google Map and let the users download it.
According to Stephen Wellman, then biggest reason that Nokia should bid Yahoo is Flickr. However, there are several problems with that application which results in pictures to go missing without any warning. This results in lesser confidence in Flickr and a move to Picasa which provided by Google. In this case, is it beneficial for Nokia to bid Yahoo? I think absolutely no. First of all, Nokia does not need this application. Users can easily store the pictures that taken from the mobile in the phone memory. At the same time, they can share with others through Bluetooth or Infrared.
In my point of view as a mobile company, I think Nokia should engage with multiple web companies like Google and Yahoo instead of bidding one web company and developing it on its own. In this way, Nokia will be able to improve its services in multi ways.
What do you think? Can you think of some other reasons Nokia should not bid Yahoo?
