No MicroHoo? Hallelujah!
When I saw the headline, I smiled: "Microsoft Abandons Yahoo Acquisition." Absent a surprise ending, the behemoth of Redmond's attempt to go head-to-head with Google in Web advertising by paying billions to snap up Yahoo has failed. And I'm relieved--if the merger had gone through, it would have been one of the more soul-crushing moments in recent tech history.
I didn't like the idea when Microsoft went public with its bid back in February, and nothing in the last three months has made me reconsider. With the likely exception of Yahoo stockholders, I can't imagine that anyone would have ultimately been happy with the outcome of a merged Microsoft-Yahoo--not Microsoft or Yahoo's users, not its employees, and probably not even Microsoft itself.
Not that the bid falling apart leaves Yahoo in great shape: It's likely to face a bruising reaction from investors in the form of a hit to its stock price and lawsuits from shareholders who think that CEO/founder Jerry Yang and the rest of the company's management should have taken Steve Ballmer's money and ran. The company is still short on bright ideas for truly competing with the Google juggernaut. And it may yet have to undergo dramatic change--in the form of a scaling back of its ambitions, the outsourcing of its ad business to Google, or an acquisition by somebody else. Despite everything, though, I think the company's far more likely to come up with interesting new services for consumers than if it had been gobbled up by Microsoft.
And as for Microsoft? I'm not saying I know how to run the company better that Ballmer and Company, but I kinda think it would make sense if the company gracefully backpedaled on its desire to be an advertising kingpin. Modest proposal: Howsabout going back to basics and doing everything in its power to come up with a next-generation Windows that the world will find more appealing than Vista in its current form?
So what's your opinion on all this?
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I am buying a lot of mp3 downloads from Amazon. I will buy nothing with DRM.
That now includes Amazon's Unbox video files. I hope that Amzon gets smart and kills DRM on video. It's all WMV and so far I believe it in uncracked.
>>RSM
BINGO! Microsoft needs to stick with software. Their latest blunders with MS Office 2007 and Vista show considerable lack in focusing on what they do best.
I don't know how my comment about Amazon appeared here, it certainly is not appropriate to this article.
Anyway, I was delighted that the Microsoft offer allowed me to baiol out of Yahoo! with a triple. I think Yahoo! is dead from the neck up.
If the deal had gone through, I would have dumped Microsoft. The culture clash between th4e companies would have been horrendous.
>>RSM