Google is sometimes criticized for its trigger-happy approach to acquisitions. The search engine's $1.65bn offer for Youtube which was agreed in a matter of days, for instance, and it topped Microsoft's offer for Doubleclick, the ad network, by about 50%. But the knockout bid can be cheaper, in the long run, as Yahoo's deal record shows.Investor Bill Burnham notes that Yahoo, a much more cautious acquirer, is paying four times as much for Rivals.com, the sports site, as it had offered in 2001. It would have been smarter for the hesitant Sunnyvale internet giant to buy Right Media, outright, last year, rather than in two stages, as the ad network became more expensive. And, best example of all: under Terry Semel, Yahoo's view of Facebook's value, $750m early last year rising to $1.6bn in September, has always lagged a step behind the college social network's own increasingly confident expectations.[IMG]http://feeds.gawker.com/~a/valleywag/full?i=BncCNU[/IMG]
