Well when you are one of the richest new companies in Silicon Valley, and are about to raise a whopping $4 billion in a secondary offering, it is no surprise that there will be some speculation on who you might buy next. The highly-unreliable and unconfirmed reports in a British newspaper, The Business, say that Google might be getting ready to buy UK-based yellow pages company, The Yell Group.
> Google, the internet search engine, is rumoured to be eyeing Britain’s Yell Group, owner of the Yellow Pages. more
The Business has more often been wrong than right about most merger rumors, so perhaps that is why I am not taking this one seriously. Still, on a slow long weekend…. But why would Google do this? Yell has some nifty SMS marketing technology. (Google has a service like that, but it doesn’t include an ads for now!)
Van Gorilla thinks SMS when married to Yellow Pages means money. Since John Gruber has declared that Google is an advertising network that leverages technology to the max, it is not that incredulous to see SMS-Ads-Yellow Pages through rose-tinted glasses and nod your head in agreement! As Russell Buckley argues, its the location based services stupid!
There is no way that this is true, and it is obvious to any one who has been following Yell. See http://blog.aqute.com/aquteresearch/2005/09/google_buying_y.html .