Did Yahoo really consider a purchase of CNN? Tom Dotan, writing at The Information, said memories of failed fusion of AOL and Time Warner have faded just enough to allow people to think it could work. His post, “Why I’m Betting On a Yahoo-CNN Marriage,” was followed by a Business Insider story New Year’s Day that, citing sources, reported Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer considered buying their way into cable television. “A Yahoo source tells us the company entered into “talks” with Scripps to acquire the Food Network,” Nicholas Carlson writes, adding that there were “pretty active” rumors over the summer that Yahoo considered a purchase of CNN from Time Warner.
On CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Friday, The Wall Street Journal‘s Matt Murray said it made sense for Yahoo to look at any and every possibility in an unclear media world. “I think Yahoo is a company, particularly, where a long term strategy is still unclear. So I can see it.”
But Fortune‘s Alan Murray disagreed, saying “cable is not the future,” and that Marissa Mayer ought to be thinking of what the future will be–and invest in that. “I think the problem here is (Mayer) just has too much money.”
Watch it, after the jump: