Yahoo! made a recent announcement that they are considering “strategic options†for comparative online shopping site Kelkoo, including a possible sale. This was reported by Financial Times. This online shopping service was acquired by Yahoo! some three-and-a-half years ago, in 2004 for €475 million ($670 million). This Paris based Kelkoo is one of Europe’s biggest e-commerce sites, that gave a new power to Yahoo! Shopping sites for the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Taiwan. Kelkoo helped online shoppers in finding the lowest prices for goods such as books, computer games, consumer electronics and fashion. But now its clear that Yahoo! Is going to sell this company.
This is how the Financial Times wrote :
"The internet company, which has been re-evaluating its business under its returned chief executive, paid €475m ($672m) in cash for Paris-based Kelkoo in March 2004, as part of a push to bolster its European operations. However, it acknowledged on Tuesday that it had not progressed as expected."
Yahoo told the Financial Times that, "One of the priorities we have identified is to improve the performance of Kelkoo. Today we are starting a process to give Kelkoo more independence – while we evaluate strategic options for the long-term future of the business."
Since the acquisition of Kelkoo, Yahoo! has never broken out revenue numbers, but now it is clear that Yahoo! Is finding it hard to make headway in the European market against strong rivals, like Google and Microsoft. After the departure of CEO Terry Semel, there has been a lot of changes at Yahoo!
In June, Google was the most visited site in most of the European countries, with Microsoft in second place and Yahoo third. This was what came out in a study by comScore, the internet research group.
Now will have to wait for some time to find out who will acquire Kellkoo.
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