Believe it or not, Yahoo has a market cap of about $22 billion, and the company intends to put some of that money to good use in the near future. Carol Bartz stated at the Transformation 2010 conference that she intends to acquire more stuff this year.
In response to what could have been a "yes" or "no" question concerning acquisitions in 2010, Bartz answered "absolutely," pretty much guaranteeing that at least one purchase will take place. Bartz then explained to Abbey Klaassen, "This year it’s about what technologies: Do we need to fill in the blanks, what analytics, what tools?"
Bartz also said, "Well just imagine whether it’s acquiring an audience – a group of female bloggers, or whether it’s acquiring some better analytics tools that help us guide campaigns with our partners, or whether it’s technology. Last year we bought at company called Zoobut, which is better photo technology, so it let us do very modern photos in our mail. It’s that sort of thing – audience, technology and tools."
The next few months should be interesting time for Yahoo, given that Microsoft will soon begin to exert a huge influence over the search side of its operations. Whatever purchases Bartz is considering could provide a good clue about what area(s) Yahoo will focus on moving forward.
One last note: For the record, Yahoo’s stock is moving up in early morning trading, perhaps giving the company a bigger shopping budget.