Yahoo is considering “strategic options” for comparative shopping site Kelkoo, including a possible sale, according to a report at FT.com
Yahoo acquired Kelkoo in 2004 for €475 million ($670 million). Paris based Kelkoo has continued to offer a standalone comparative shopping service, whilst being used to power Yahoo Shopping sites for the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Taiwan.
Yahoo told FT that “One of the priorities we have identified is to improve the performance of Kelkoo…we are starting a process to give Kelkoo more independence – while we evaluate strategic options for the long-term future of the business.”
Yahoo’s restructure after the departure of CEO Terry Semel has continued to grow in pace, with a number of services being added to the Deadpool and talks of staff downsizing. The admission that Kelkoo is not performing well for Yahoo follows the massive write-down of Skype by eBay, although comes at a time where Microsoft is buying in this space.
FRENCH! Grrrrr! They should get rid of them!
I must restrain myself here….. (or so the lawyers say):
My opinions of European governments, laws, culture, socialist dogma, infrastructure, deodorants, styles and stupidity are well known. Don’t get me wrong, I am not anti-european, I am just against stupidity! Whether it comes from Apple, IBM or the EU Competition Commission.
How can we stop people from buying our products?
How can we cease to be a monopoly when our customers make us that?
If we are put in a position of dominance, shouldn’t we dominate?
Shouldn’t we crush the small companies which threaten what our customers clearly want,- US?
“Microsoft must now comply fully with its legal obligations to desist from engaging in anticompetitive conduct. The Commission will do its utmost to ensure that Microsoft complies swiftly,” – Neelie Kroes (EU greasy lawyer) said in a statement.
Hey Neelie! “Neelie”, lol, What cha’ gonna do if I just close down all of our operations over there?
That would solve a lot of our problems, wouldn’t it?
You would no longer have to worry about MS and we would no longer have to worry about guys like you constantly whining and sucking us dry!
I’m gonna give this option some serious thought. Who needs that funny pink, green and blue money of you people’s anyways?
Just thinking out loud.
This Fake Steve Ballmer crap is about as funny as a cry for help. Seriously dude, give it up.
yahoo has been doing good these days….enhancement to their search engine
http://vidsonly.blogspot.com
Duncan, Kelkoo also operates in Belgium, think you overlooked: http://www.kelkoo.be/
Some insight into the name Kelkoo: it roughly translates into “Quel coût?” which means “What cost?” or even “How much?”
That’s your Frog lesson for the day mes amis!
John
http://www.gigatribe.com
no it is quel coup … what a deal.
Good news…those Kelkoo wankers have been running Yahoo Europe into the ground.
problem is, the only real buyer for this down the road IS yahoo (or a competitor) and if yahoo doesn’t want it, then what’s the point? they oughta just auction it off on ebay…
Most of the management team that made Kelkoo what it was left within a year post acquisition. I worked with & met most of them
Good guys, very smart, driven, etc.
However…as what happens with a lot of good guys with tons of motivation get a huge payday, they lost motivation, I think. Christophe (one of Kelkoo’s founders) told me they made enough that the lowest level Kelkoo employee could afford a small condo in Grenoble (their largest development office, which he ran).
Considering that was for the lowest level employee, how much better off would the management team have been? And, since the acquisition nearly 3 years ago, where has Yahoo’s stock price gone?
That’s right, it’s basically flat. And, I firmly believe you can’t appeal to an audience unless you speak their language…Yahoo UK, is uk.yahoo.com, which no self respecting, intelligent, UK based web user is going to intuitively understand is a UK web address.
Same goes for the rest of the EU…Kelkoo helped me to try to sell Yahoo management (John Marcom, SVP international, etc) on doing the right thing…however, Ash Patel (SVP, platform) John, etc, none of them wanted to foot the infrastructure bill nearly 3 years ago when we all tried to get them to do the right thing.
So, considering a dynamic, talented team (Kelkoo) seeing me clearly fail, and failing themselves in trying to get Yahoo management to do the right thing for international…is it any wonder Yahoo’s exploring “options” for them now? They bought in, they failed to listen, and then things didn’t go so well.
Chalk one up for post buy out hang over.
Yes it’s true and the price tag is … $100m! Quite a blow for Y!
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