A new report from an internet analyst argues that lean economic times will force the U.S. internet to shrink and only two companies have what it takes to win in the long-term.

Those two web giants are Amazon.com and Google, according to Stanford C. Bernstein analyst Jeffrey Lindsay, whose 310-page report, "U.S. Internet: The End of the Beginning," says other players like Yahoo, IAC and eBay will either be bait for mergers or pushed aside to irrelevance, according to Reuters. 

"Both Google and Amazon.com are still racking up annual growth rates in the 30-40 percent range, with only a relatively modest slowdown in sight," Lindsay writes.

He believes Yahoo will eventually be sold to Microsoft and Barry Diller will continue with his plans to break IAC into five separate companies, but neither move will be of much help.

"Arguably the weakest players have strayed furthest from their original competences and have been operating largely as conglomerates," he writes.
Meanwhile, Lindsay predicts eBay will eventually attract a Microsoft-like suitor or potentially sell off its PayPal and Skype properties.

The report isn't all sunshine for Google and Amazon, though. Lindsay says Google has yet to present a strategy to dominate the mobile market the same way it has dominated the computer-based web. Amazon, meanwhile, faces the issue of being forced to pay state sales taxes.