If Yahoo is toast, just add juice!

ADVOCATES OF the failed Yahoo acquisition by Microsoft have been saying for some time that Yahoo is toast . The views is that it ruined a wonderful opportunity to be engulfed and devoured by the convicted monopolist and Redmond software juggernaut, the Vole. Yet, if everything goes wrong, the INQUIRER suggests the company's head honchos turn the brand into a beverage, as can be seen down South America way.

A few years back, a Businessweak article said: "It's still unclear how well the brands of U.S. Net giants will fare in developing countries". It also mentioned Yahoo's promotional efforts in France, where the firm, "hosted late night evenings at supermarkets where singles could pick up a Yahoo purple basket to demonstrate their willingness to meet someone." [!?] According to that article, the Yahoo brand was worth $4.6 billion, three years ago.

So imagine this correspondent's surprise while going down the aisles at the local Tesco equivalent and hearing two yelling kids from hell shouting their mother "I want Yahoo!, I want Yahoo!" - actually, they said "Quiero Yahoo," of course. It turns out these were neither Mr. Yang or Carl Icahn's bastard child sent to South America.

These were regular local twins, who wanted some Orange Juice, manufactured by the candy, food and beverages giant Arcor, and sold under the Yahoo brand. We bought a pair of cartons just to taste it: it's no big deal. It's nothing to get crazy about - unless you're a kid with a twin brother trying to terrorize the people around you, apparently. At the INQ LatAm HQ, we prefer to press our own oranges.

According to whackypedia: "Arcor has 31 manufacturing plants, with 27 in Argentina alone and the remaining spread among Brazil, Chile and Peru. It is one of the largest producers of candies worldwide and the largest producer of cookies in South America, with exports to over 117 countries." Yes, the Arcor brand is everywhere down here, from ice cream to candy to cookies, and also, we now learn, carton juice.

We're not sure if Yahoo gets any money from these orange juice sales, but this correspondent doubts it does, as according to our blurry memories of high school years, it's totally possible in Argentinian trademark law to register a brand for a specific kind of product - say, food - and that doesn't automagically extend to other types of products, unless you specifically register it for every product category.

Whatever the case, we overheard a TV spot by the firm some time ago about Yahoo carton juices changing its name to something else, yet the shelves are still chockfull of Yahoo cartons, and Arcor's web page continues touting the success of its Yahoo juices brand.

So, there you have, Jerry Yang, or Mr. Icahn... the kids down here may all use Google, but they love your brand when it comes to their orange juice. Keep that in mind as an option: if you find one day that Yahoo is toast, try some juice. µ

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