A lot of people have asked me what I think of the deal and what the benefits are. Simply put I think it is a hard one to see what the real benefits are and what the real synergy effects are in the “merge” of the companies. I would say there isn’t a slam dunk in any way. The reasons for the merge to me without any investigations nor deeper analysis is for Microsoft to get access to better search technology and a better online advertising solution as well as market shares in these both sectors. This could potentially become a bigger competitor to Google which is good news, but still we then have only two major players in the field which means that the barriers of entry is huge for anyone to entry. Especially since the business model of search these days is more or less exclusively textual advertising based on the indexed pages.
