back to article What's wrong with the Daily Mail Group buying Yahoo?

Right now MailOnline parent the Daily Mail Group is worth at most £2.5bn, and the few content assets that Yahoo! is supposed to be selling, are already worth way more than that. But the issues go deeper. DMG – parent both of the Daily Mail print newspaper and the massively successful online site Mail Online – has no magic …

  1. theblackhand

    So the good news is....

    ...the Mail Group might fail because of this?

    Let me guess, this is one of those Daily Mail articles where they tell you the good news about X on Monday and but by Friday, X has morphed into a global catastrophe?

    1. SolidSquid

      Re: So the good news is....

      The good news being it cures cancer and the bad news that massive numbers of people have started doing X, which causes cancer?

      1. wolfetone Silver badge

        Re: So the good news is....

        "The good news being it cures cancer and the bad news that massive numbers of people have started doing X, which causes cancer?"

        But Yahoo! causes cancer. So why would the Daily Fail want to get cancer? Unless, of course, it's actually the Daily Fail that gives you cancer but Yahoo cures it?

        We won't know until it turns up on the sidebar of shame.

        1. Captain Queeg

          Re: So the good news is....

          So Yahoo is "all grown up now" - if it's headed for the sidebar of shame...

        2. PNGuinn
          Thumb Up

          sidebar of shame

          I'm GOING TO STEAL THAT.

          1. Old Handle

            Re: sidebar of shame

            I thought everyone called it that.

        3. eesiginfo

          Re: So the good news is....

          So the good news is...... that Yahoo management have owned up to being crap.

          That's the good news.... and it seems to have been lost in all the Daily Mail hoo-ha.

          Take Flickr as a prime example.

          So..... you don't want all your photographs to be suddenly owned by hivemind or picssr - where they lose all context with your collection (becoming pointless images - try visiting the 'image' page from Google images and you get just SHITE!...... certainly not your 'location related' collection).

          Okay... understandable (of course it's too late - you have to get google to delete them AND the new owners) BUT...... to do this..... Yahoo deletes your pictures from their own search system!!!!!!

          What?..... this can't be true (but it is).

          Yahoo cuts off it's nose to spite it's face....... so now, your pictures in all their contextual glory, stored on Yahoo systems, are now invisible on Yahoo search!

          Is this madness?

          If so.... what form of madness is it, where you (Yahoo) destroy your own database of images that you (Yahoo) have paid so much to set up (cos it's free storage)?

          Vis a vis the Daily Mail...... they are in the image business.

          Perhaps they would wish to reinvigorate Flickr.

          I honestly don't know.

          But in the face of the 'tsunami of complaints' over what Yahoo are doing to image storage & display, yet blindly tripping over umbilical cords, and pushing forwards with their kneejerk manoeuvres....

          .... please...... somebody take them over, because the good news is:

          They have finally admitted that they haven't a clue (and don't we know it).

    2. BurnT'offering

      Re: the Mail Group might fail because of this?

      Then it should be encouraged by all (not) right-thinking people

    3. Bob Vistakin
      Holmes

      Hmm, the daily mail buying Yahoo.

      So you'll now get to see columns of what the wannabe celebs are wearing on a beach next to your search results?

      Spock: Fascinating.

      1. Alistair

        Re: So the good news is....

        @ Bob Vistakin:

        Why are my search results on the beach with a wannabe celeb, and just how much is it gonna cost me to fly down there to get them?

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Childcatcher

      Re: So the good news is....

      Any thoughts on how this would affect house prices in my area?

    5. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: So the good news is....

      Apparently The Guardian will run out of cash in about five years, so the UK newspaper industry could become a lot less extreme by 2020 or so.

  2. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Joke

    Glenda tells it like it is.

    Monday. "Buying Yahoo is the best thing that can happen to them."

    Friday "Buying Yahoo. Aintyasick of it?"

    Thoughtful analysis will resume on Monday.

  3. TRT Silver badge

    So long as it sends the internet into meltdown...

    there will be a story in it.

    1. Jon Massey
      Mushroom

      Re: So long as it sends the internet into meltdown...

      Once all those Tumblr users find their beloved platform is owned by the Faily then there's sure to be many toy-pram ejection events

  4. Paratrooping Parrot
    Meh

    I am a bit worried

    Yahoo deal with email. If the Daily Fail take over Yahoo, how would we know whether the Yahoo services that are currently running will still be available? I have a feeling that Daily Fail will take over services that it feels are profitable and remove those that are making a loss. Therefore things like Yahoo Mail and Flickr may suffer.

    1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge
      Devil

      Re: I am a bit worried

      I'm sure the Daily Mail would love to run email. If they could only get enough people to use the service, say by ceasing to screw it up horrible drastically improving it, they could sack all their journalists and just rely on all the lovely info passing across their servers.

      Oh Ethics? Yeah, that'th the plathe just to the East of London isn't it...

      1. Chika
        Mushroom

        Re: I am a bit worried

        Oh Ethics? Yeah, that'th the plathe just to the East of London isn't it...

        Oi! I resemble that remark!

      2. Mutton Jeff

        Re: I am a bit worried

        Aye from "Thiverpoolth steeth stathion"

    2. wolfetone Silver badge

      Re: I am a bit worried

      The Daily Fail are a right wing newspaper. So what will happen is that they will make you pay for Yahoo. It'll be cheap at first, then get more expensive while the service gets worse. To fix it, they will raise the price of the service But the service gets worse, more people leave, the Daily Fail loses money. They then say they're going bankrupt and ask the Government to help. The Government steps in, rescues the service, and over time stabilises it. At which point the Government sell it at a loss to The Daily Mirror.

    3. The Boojum

      Re: I am a bit worried

      Yahoo! Mail being put down would be the best thing that has happened for internet security in years. Just about every scam email I've received has its origins in a Yahoo! email account.

    4. 404

      Re: I am a bit worried

      Currently, AT&T (and all the domains AT&T acquired in the rush to reassemble Ma Bell) hosts their email with Yahoo, so should be just fine for a while.

      ;)

    5. Nifty Silver badge

      Re: I am a bit worried

      Know the feeling. I own the postal address I live at and it's letterbox. By contrast free email services come and go and have varying privacy issues. Buy a domain for your email and you have to obfuscate you postal address by paying a quite high annual fee - and still decide on a secure backend email solution anyway.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: I am a bit worried

        I own the postal address I live at and it's letterbox.

        I misread that. I thought you said you lived in a litter box. Living in a letter box makes much more sense.

      2. ravenviz Silver badge
        Headmaster

        RE: obfuscate

        Well I, for one, eschew obfuscation!

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Having at least one Daily Mail entity's hack and an ex-DM hack try to get me fired from jobs twice in the last 10 years for having the temerity to own an anti-Tory website does not inspire in me confidence in their ability to keep email and news separate.

    1. wolfetone Silver badge

      Well you do realise you're going to have to share this website with us so we can spread the word of it....

      1. JetSetJim
        Paris Hilton

        Perhaps he owns the Vote Leave website?

    2. Roland6 Silver badge

      " does not inspire in me confidence in their ability to keep email and news separate."

      Well the choice seems to be, go with Google et al who don't see any difference between using email and other personal information for profiling and advertising purposes, or go with the Daily Mail and see your 'private' email becoming the source of tomorrow's headlines...

  6. Jason Bloomberg Silver badge
    Unhappy

    Woe, woe and thrice woe!

    Given the commentards of Yahoo News are often as rabid as those of the Mail; that alone probably makes it a marriage made in heaven.

    That said, it's rare to find any media publication comments section which doesn't get used as a platform for hate speech these days.

    1. Elmer Phud

      Re: Woe, woe and thrice woe!

      You utter bastard!

    2. Thought About IT

      Re: Woe, woe and thrice woe!

      Adding the Wail's sidebar of shame to Yahoo News would be one way of increasing its page hits, but a sad reflection on human nature.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Woe, woe and thrice woe!

      The Left has made hate speech fashionable ever since Marx.

      I dont think its platform dependent.

      1. Elmer Phud

        Re: Woe, woe and thrice woe!

        Oh, good greif!

    4. Elmer Phud

      Re: Woe, woe and thrice woe!

      A prime example is the Independant comments - every single one seems to be hijacked by EDL/BNP/UKIP ranters.

      No attempts to even menton the actual subject apart from a lever to rant about Muslims, Migrants, Corbyn, etc.etc.

      (and elsewhere here we are informed it is some sort of Trotskyist collectivethat is responsible)

      1. Adrian Midgley 1

        the comments on newspaper sites

        I had assumed those were prototype AI spambot Dingbot entities.

        Humans do that?

    5. CP/M-80

      Re: Woe, woe and thrice woe!

      Have an up-vote for the Up Pompeii! reference.

  7. Elmer Phud

    One can only hope

    Yahoo has seen many top-end changes and much moolah chucked at it but it still declines.

    One can only hope that extra money increases this decline and drags the Maul with it.

    BUT will buying a foriegn company cause mortgages to rise and homeless gay immigrants infect our bricks and mortar with AIDS?

    HAS YOUR LOCAL COUNCIL MADE MIDDLE BRITAIN OBESE? -- Mail-o-matic

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The Daily Mail & Yahoo!

    Two subjects that usually mean a piss-take article.

    Pleasantly surprised to read an article that plays it straight.

    I've never understood what Yahoo! is actually for and so its finances are a mystery to me. But on the off-chance that this all means that more money is needed, I can see Yahoo! following BT down the path of charging for e-mail servers that have been free up to now.

    1. klaxhu

      Re: The Daily Mail & Yahoo!

      well, you clearly don't understand their business model and yet come here to comment.

      epic ...fail :D

      1. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

        Re: The Daily Mail & Yahoo!

        The only saving grace of the Daily Mail is that it isn't owned by Sky/News International.

        Not that that is much these days.

        1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

          Re: The Daily Mail & Yahoo!

          Is this the problem? Perhaps The Mail have been burning with jealousy for ages, because News International made such a success of Myspace. And they're desperate to get in on the action...

          Come to think of it, didn't ITV do so well with Friends Reunited too - and the less said about AOL Time Warner, the better.

      2. RegGuy1 Silver badge

        you clearly don't understand their business model

        They have a business model?

        1. Chika
          Trollface

          Re: you clearly don't understand their business model

          They have a business model?

          They did have.

          But she caught cancer.

        2. Naselus

          Re: you clearly don't understand their business model

          "They have a business model?"

          Of course they do, this isn't Twitter.

  9. x 7

    anyone considering purchasing Yahoo should reread the history of the AOL - Time Warner merger.

    this is a repeat performance waiting to happen

    1. anthonyhegedus Silver badge

      The difference between AOL and Yahoo is that AOL was also a pretend ISP and Yahoo isn't even that.

      1. Nick Ryan Silver badge

        The AOL Time Warner merger was masterful. I'm pretty sure the case was that there were some very clever people at AOL who managed to hoodwink Time Warner (who were until this time pretty successful) into believing that AOL had any value, had any income and weren't the laughing stock joke player on the Internet. That would have taken some effort, but to somehow come up with a value in excess of Time Warner's was a masterpiece of creative accounting.

        1. Captain DaFt

          The AOL Time Warner merger

          Um, if you look back, it was AOL that bought Time Warner.

          Beautiful move on AOL's management's part.

          They took bubble billions and bought something with some real worth, consolidated management, then when the bubble burst, AOL-TW took a big hit in profits short term, but survivable.

          AOL alone would have died.

          All that was left was to jettison the 'Acquiring' AOL, name and all, then retain their management positions in Time Warner.

          Sheer, evil, genius.

          1. Nick Ryan Silver badge

            Re: The AOL Time Warner merger

            Technically it was a "merge" with both organisations transferring into a new combined organisation, 55% of which was AOL, 45% Time Warner, as dictated by their current "value" at the time. The shifting of management positions and shareholdings would likely make for quite dull but insightful reading.

  10. Chris Jasper

    Odd Language

    I assume if this is successful we can see far more use of the words, 'pert', 'leggy', 'bosom', 'full bosom' and various other terms to describe the physical form of the fairer sex used by the Mail to crop up in search results?

    1. ElCommentard

      Re: Odd Language

      Side boob.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Yahoo

    Why anyone would want to buy the world's largest collection of undeleted email spam is beyond me.

    My Yahoo account gets so much spam, I stopped using it and only go to it if someone tells me they sent me something there.

    1. Bob Vistakin
      Alien

      Re: Yahoo

      Curious - that's me too, and it's been like that for years. Anyone else?

      1. Captain DaFt

        Re: Yahoo

        "Anyone else?"

        If I get 10 spam a week in Yahoo mail, I consider that heavy.

        Normally 5 or less a week.

        But then, the Yahoo mail is my throwaway address for websites like this one, with no contacts in the account.

      2. zb

        Re: Yahoo

        "Curious - that's me too, and it's been like that for years. Anyone else?"

        Does anyone use it any other way?

    2. handle

      Re: Yahoo

      TBF, spam does auto-expire and the filtering is of similar effectiveness to other providers in my experience.

  12. FuzzyWuzzys
    Facepalm

    Does this mean Daily Fail will own Flickr?

    Time to back up yer pics before they become part of some "Hitler's Aunt Took My Picture!" or "Foreigners, We've Got Pics of them Enjoying Themselves....( in their own homeland )."

  13. Warm Braw

    So, in summary...

    Yahoo? do you think you are kidding, Mr Dacre,

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It would be a shame if the Mail got into fiscal difficulties as a result of this.

    Funny if all those 'journalists' ended up living in cardboard boxes at Kings Cross.

    Hopefully their UBS payments will terminated so they will be reduced to vermin.

    I don't mind the Tories slashing their benefits

    I'm certain many readers share my views.

    I for one have not forgotten all the virulently anti semitic headlines they published in the 1930's when they tacitly supported the British Union of Fascists.

    They never apologized for that.

    Nice people though

    1. gazthejourno (Written by Reg staff)

      My god, you can remember the original 1930s headlines? You must be the oldest ever commentard on the Reg – by my maths you must be pushing 90 years old!

      Just one thing: can you also remember the Daily Mirror headlines of the mid-30s? In particular, this one titled "Give the blackshirts a helping hand" http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rc6PP2pjDqk/UokG8RevfYI/AAAAAAAALqU/Ti_gw9lHa8Y/s1600/daily+mirror+blackshirts+1.jpg

      Reference: http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2011/dec/06/dailymail-oswald-mosley

      1. unwarranted triumphalism

        But... but... they did it too...!

        The Mirror publishing that is equally reprehensible.

        But it still doesn't change what the Mail published, does it?

        1. GitMeMyShootinIrons

          Re: But... but... they did it too...!

          "But it still doesn't change what the Mail published, does it?"

          You rather miss the point - You're basically punishing them for the sins of past generations of editors and journalists based on your present day political bias.

          Remember also that many media outlets were rather keen on Stalin's Russia in the mid 40's when they were doing a fine impression of a steamroller over the remnants of the Nazi hordes - do we accuse them of being Reds-under-the bed too?

          1. unwarranted triumphalism

            Re: But... but... they did it too...!

            '...do we accuse them of being Reds-under-the bed too?'

            I would.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Hmmm well I have to say I don't always agree with Guardian articles.

        I find this article more pertinent, especially the reference to Rothermere encouraging Hitler to slaughter Romania. Worth noting Rothermere owned the Mirror at the time....

        http://liberalconspiracy.org/2013/10/02/so-what-did-viscount-rothermere-really-believe-in-the-answer-should-disturb-everyone-who-loves-this-country/

    2. DrBobMatthews

      Never mind the Mail & the Mirror supporting the Blackshirts. More to the point what about our wonderful grasping treacherous royals? one of whom with his American tart was a great friend of Adolf Hitler. When he abdicated, Churchill saved his rotten hide by shipping him out of the UK as Governor General of the Bahamas, no doubt to save him being strung up from the nearest lampost by the people who would have been enraged by this Nazi loving moron.

  15. AbortRetryFail

    Flickr

    My biggest concern with this is that Yahoo currently own Flickr, and I actively use Flickr (and pay for a Pro membership too).

    The thought of giving money to the Daily Mail Group does not fill me with happiness.

    1. Paul Crawford Silver badge

      Re: Flickr

      Welcome to the cloud, where you get little or no control of what happens to your data!

      It can happen to any hosted service, either the hosting company screws up and deletes your stuff, or the service decided to close because they are bored or losing money. In short, if the ownership or future availability really matters to you then you set up your own (hosted if your ISP can't offer the bandwidth you need at a price you can afford), and keep your own mirror/backup in any case.

      1. AbortRetryFail

        Re: Flickr

        I totally agree, Paul.

        It's the social media aspect that keeps me on Flickr - I have loads of views and comments on my pics, and that kind of stuff is hard to capture on a self-hosted solution as you don't get the same kind of traction. Obviously I have all my photos backed up, but you can't backup views, comments and social engagement.

        We had this debate when The Reg reported that Flickr deleted some chap's account and people were quck to ask why he didn't have backups. He did have backups, of his photos. But that was not what he had lost. It would be like eBay deleting your account and you losing all your seller history and feedback rating - it's not something you can back up, nor something you can self-host necessarily.

        As you say, though, you are at the mercy of the provider for stuff like this sadly.

        1. Roland6 Silver badge

          Re: Flickr

          "But that was not what he had lost. It would be like eBay deleting your account and you losing all your seller history and feedback rating - it's not something you can back up, nor something you can self-host necessarily."

          I see an opportunity for the web equivalent of the credit reference agencies...

  16. Mayhem
    Alert

    Surely the biggest problem

    Is the Daily Mail hardly needs more exclamation marks.

    Can you imagine the headlines on the All! New! Daily! Mail!

  17. IsJustabloke
    Trollface

    You know...

    I'm always amused by the Anti Daily Mail rhetoric that any article that mentions them is strewn with. Based upon the opprobrium absolutely no one in the entire country admits to reading it or looking at its website and yet, it has 2nd highest circulation and its website is frequently cited among the top performers in the world. Someone must be reading it.....

    1. Captain DaFt

      Re: You know...

      "Someone must be reading it....."

      Hipsters, ironically, of course. :)

  18. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    What's wrong with the Daily Mail buying Yahoo?

    Nothing.

    Yahoo! doesn't need anyone's help to get worse, so being bought by the Daily Mail might actually make it better.

    1. Chika
      Facepalm

      Re: What's wrong with the Daily Mail buying Yahoo?

      Yahoo! doesn't need anyone's help to get worse, so being bought by the Daily Mail might actually make it better.

      Tower to Pork, you are clear to taxi on runway 2 9.

      OINK!!!

  19. energystar
    Angel

    Expecting a 'blend'

    Of Media and Digital Expertise .

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Daily Mail buying Yahoo!

    Means that it'll own Tumblr from which it gets most of its 'content' - so they will have cut out the middle man.

  21. pete 22

    just speaking as an american...

    I think its a great idea! It will up the quality! Of both of them! They can leverage their synergies!

  22. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Unhappy

    But note Yahoo pays a *dividiend*

    Something Amazon still deos not seem to do on a regular basis.

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I just hope tumblr doesn't start censoring nipples.

  24. Slx

    Yahoo is still around?!?

    Wow

  25. fwadman

    yahoo, tumbr, flurry ...

    all a waste of perfectly good electrons. At least they are in one place so we can have a nice big bonfire.

  26. Dick
    Stop

    It's a Match Made in Heaven

    I think all you naysayers don't realize just how bad Yahoo! has become. A high percentage of the "news" items on the page are now "sponsored", in other words clickbait advertising, and lot of the rest are just garbage. Near the top currently are two Brit. items torn from the Daily Mail but categorized as "U.S." news. One is about flytipping (we Americans are only familiar with cow tipping) and the other about girls school uniforms (ain't got many of those either). Yahoo! is already crap, but I guess at least we could maybe look forward to crap with better pictures if they join with the DM - but no pimple popping videos please.

  27. adam payne

    Yahoo! search now with BS sensationalist results

  28. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Yahoo and Daily Mail?

    They deserve each other.

  29. MJI Silver badge

    British newspapers

    Funny really, I just have a look to see what is happening.

    Mail is not that bad really, you can access it unlike some of News International sites.

    I ignore the gutter press (eg Sun).

    Mail and Express are pretty similar and to be honest a bit funny, you cannot take them serilously.

    Independant is turning into Metro, which is not as good as it was for one section Games Central.

    Guardian is a bit up its own bum but OK. Telegraph is OK.

    However BBC is one of the better UK news outlets.

    But all news outlets do seem to be getting worse than they were.

    1. Dr_N

      Re: British newspapers

      "Mail and Express are pretty similar and to be honest a bit funny, you cannot take them serilously."

      People do take them seriously.

      Deadly seriously.

      Now, how's would The 'Mail's purchase of Yahoo! affect house prices and mortgage rates?

      And will it cure cancer or give everyone cancer?

      1. MJI Silver badge

        Re: British newspapers

        Well they should not

        And if the Express bought them it would be Diana season again

  30. DrBobMatthews

    Wrong question . The question should be is there anything right with the Daily Mail and its obsessive interest in cr@p, the royal spongers, lowlife celebreties and donating to the tax evading tories and their scummy, shady, devious friends.

  31. toffer99

    Nothing.

    Good idea. They'll get it as wrong, as Murdoch does with tech, go bust and Rothermere will stay in France, Dacre in Scotland. Result! High fives all round!

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