Microsoft (MSFT): Bing Starts To Ding Yahoo! (YHOO)

Steve Ballmer is The Man. His persistance in pursuing search engine market share may finally be paying off which could sink Yahoo!’s (YHOO) chances of being turned around under new CEO Carol Bartz. New figures from comScore show that Microsoft’s (MSFT) search product, Bing, had daily penetration among U.S. searchers of  15.5%  from June 2- 6, a sharp gain which had to come at the expense of either Google (GOOG) or Microsoft.

If the victim of Bing’s market share gain was Google, the search leader can afford it. If Yahoo!’s piece of the US search business is dropping below 20%, Microsoft has a chance to catch it.

Yahoo! may find that its new CEO has made the same mistake as its old one, co- founder Jerry Yang did. Yang passed on a buyout attempt which would have brought his shareholders at least $33.  The stock trades at $14.

Bartz has been thumbing her nose at Ballmer by indicating that her company can go it alone. That will work until the larger company begins to prove Bing can gain and hold ground. Yahoo! is painted into a corner if that happens.

Douglas A. McIntyre