Is this phrase just plain wrong?

"Steve Ballmer still wants to swallow Jerry Yang."

And the Paris angle? Well... need I say more?

The hoodie is mine...

So, rather than become yet another unwilling customer of MicroS**t, I have already switched my homepage from Yahoo! to MyWay.

Adium and iChat for IM clients...

And, of course, iWorks and iLife for essentially everything else.

It's sad, really, that the current (mis)Administration here on the west side of the Pond decided to let the illegal monopoly off the hook with little more than a slap on the wrist...as they had done several times before.

We can only hope that, like AT&T, MS will eventually *be* broken up...and allow real competition and innovation.

Black helicopter because I know they're gonna come get me someday...in fact, I dare 'em!

Microshaft will just f___k it up like they do with everything they touch. Which can only be good news for Google!

Does anyone even use Yahoo? Aren't they just one of the shit search engines that people used before Google built something that actually worked and then everyone used that instead? 46 billion? 46 quid more like.

Balmer to Yahoo:

Please accept our offer because MSN has failed abysmally, and if we don't buy you, we will have to admit that Microsoft can't produce a viable internet based service.

Just a few hours after Mexico rejected the state of Washington's $44.6bn purchase offer, the Redmond-based state has responded, reiterating that it "reserves the right to pursue all necessary steps to ensure that Mexican residents are provided with the opportunity to realize the value inherent in our proposal."

In a statement released this afternoon, Washington called Mexico's rejection "unfortunate."

"It is unfortunate that Mexico has not embraced our full and fair proposal to combine our state with their country," the statement begins. "Based on conversations with resident billionaires in both areas, we are confident that moving forward promptly to consummate a transaction is in the best interests of all parties."

Oh dear, MS sounds like the sleazy guy at the bar who won't take the hint that the chick isn't interested.

Next thing you know, Steve Ballmer will start stalking them outside of their offices.

> We can only hope that, like AT&T, MS will eventually *be* broken up...and allow

> real competition and innovation.

Oh, yeah. Look at how all that turned out. The "competition" ended up being no better than AT&T, and AT&T is back in one piece again, larger than before. At the moment they are trying to muscle Tennessee to have a state-wide franchise fee for TV services instead of dealing county-by-county like all the cablecos have had to do.

Based on the US's history of "breaking up" monopolies, Microsoft should welcome it. It would be very advantageous in the long run.

MS only makes money from their OS and Office business units, but this is hardly reflected in the way they spend money. They spent, apparently, $5bn developing Vista but are prepared to spend 8x as much on a company that is losing ground (to Google). If I was part of the MS Windows group I'd be pissed: making the money to be spent on silliness.

I guess that with a hostile takeover there is nothing preventing MS getting what they want, but it seems to be a distraction. MS has got Google-focussed and will do anything to make war with Google. Having lost customer focus they must surely just be on a glide path to failure.

Acquisitions (apart from Office) have been a tradgedy for MS( http://www.microsoft.com/msft/acquisitions/history.mspx). Hotmail didn't do anything for them. Bungie (Halo) probably makes enough to pay its way but unlikely feeds the whole family.

The MS CFO, Chris Liddell, is proud of the fact that MS is acquiring like crazy and is pushing for MS to borrow, for the first time in MS history, to acquire even more.

Unless MS changes form and picks a couple of real winners, these acquisitions can only bleed MS, distract management, and hasten the end.

Yahoo might have some market share, but that is tapering off. Yahoo has no really new products and no services that match many of Google's. Sure, MS can prop up Yahoo and keep it going a bit longer but there does not see any real benefit for MS or Yahoo out of a merger.

MS have served up nothing interesting in the last few years. Vista: flop. Zune: redefines flop. Xbox 360: RROD. Never before has MS been in a position where average people have a negative opinion about their products.

So two ailing companies surely cannot defeat the advancing Google, but perhaps they can support eachother and tread water for a little longer.

He didn't include the likelihood of the Yahoo coders and other assorted flotsam and jetsam doing a runner to set up on their own or to tootle off to Google.

Also, there's plenty of reports that this was/is about Yahoo's users. What will the Yahoo users do? Sit there and suffer the transition to Microsoft infrastructure? Run away? And then there's the dear old EC, who might look unfavourably on Microsoft "buying" a majority share (presuming they don't bail) of webmail and IM.

... and the "upside" is ?

perhaps a better question is *what* exactly is going to be shoved in my 'upside' as an AT&T-Yahoo! user!

Win2008 servers ?

BTW .. ICQ here since 1998

Many people talk about how this deal doesn't make sense. Let's look around for an explanation that does then. I think MS is looking for some kind of open source angle so they can embrace, extend and extinguish. They've been devious before and open source is probably their worst enemy, not Google.

Yahoo has some open source FreeBSD. Could that be what they're after? THAT would make sense.

Zimbra....

Microsoft won't do it.

They are like the nerd with plenty of cash standing in the car lot full of sports cars.

They have the cash, they want the car, but will play safe and hold on to the cash.

The corporate world of chess.....

10's of thousands of dollars per move in legal fees.

46 billion to checkmate. Do MS really want to win this game ?

Divide and conquer ?

Still wiping the spittle of the monitor from laughing at

"Steve Ballmer still wants to swallow Jerry Yang."

Safety glasses required, when dealing with bodily fluids

It's actually worse if you include more of it:

"Steve Ballmer still wants to swallow Jerry Yang's company"

Just leave off the 'pany'. I suspect this was deliberate :)

It's nice that Microsoft are inviting Yahoo's shareholders to take part in the upside of the combined companies. Who's going to be taking care of the downside then?

Is that a roundabout way of saying they fully intend to screw Yahoo!?

What will become of Flickr if MS buy Yahoo? I guess I won't care if it happens, because I'll be gone from there in a flash (along with revoking any rights for my copyright photos to be on there).

I don't want MS to touch my stuff (yes, I realise the irony of that statement given I'm writing this from a Windows box).

MS ruined Hotmail, and I can only imagine anything Yahoo runs would be stuffed up too.

Any attack made by the Rebels against us would be a useless gesture, no matter what technical data they've obtained. This 'alliance' is now the ultimate power in the universe. I suggest we use it!

Embrace, Extend, Extinguish.

I feel sorry for Yahoo! even though I never much used them.

Yahoo users didn't want to be Microsoft users so they bought shares and increased their effective value.

That was my guess anyway.

I thought everyone knew that resistance against the Borg is futile?

Your company will be assimilated. It's the oldest joke in IT and the most scarily true one.

"Does anyone even use Yahoo? Aren't they just one of the shit search engines that people used before Google built something that actually worked and then everyone used that instead?"

There's a lot more to Yahoo than its search engine. Millions of people use Flickr and other Yahoo online applications.

I suspect that the mobile space might be more of interest to Microsoft than the web space now that the latest mobile platforms are blurring the distinction between mobile and web application. The Apple iPhone integrates with Google's online app suite. Google have their own mobile platform in the works that also brings their app suite to the handset. Microsoft online applications have very few users in comparison, so bundling them with Windows Mobile would be less attractive to mobile customers.

MS is revisiting its early days, where they engaged in takeovers of dubious natures just to eliminate competition. They've consistantly shown complete lack of innovation, acquiring other technologies and just integrating it....... How very Borg like :P

If MS does do a hostile takeover of Yahoo like they are threatening I hope the DoJ screws them sideways. Doesn't the DoJ have to approve this action anyhow?? But yeah if they succeed, say goodbye to any non-IE support in Yahoo products, wouldn't be surprised if the use of flash on Flickr got changed to MS's stupid alternative, just to further tie in dependancies. And no doubt they'll screw their open source projects too, as it is in competition with Microsofts.

"Furthermore, the combination will create a more competitive marketplace by establishing a compelling number two"

I thought Microsoft were doing quite well in the "number two" department already, judging by the historically excremental quality of their internet strategy.

John

"MicroS**t ... iChat ... iWorks ... iLife ..."

So, you're an iApple user, yeah?

is how much furniture was Balmered before the press release ?

Contrary to others, I believe someone as bonkers as him, could likely close the deal, setting a high speed course to the big wall.

We'll see ...

"Microhoo will happen. One way or another" Remember TW/AO-Hell? Or HP/Compaq? Excite/@Home? This will be the end of Yawhore! (that's good news to me) and seriously, seriously weaken M$. (even better news!) So, yeah, I'm all for it! Do it!

then that would leave Google as the Behemoth in the room? Would our beloved regulators then start to look at some of their less savoury practices and policies like potential for data mining personal information, unrestricted democratisation of copyright materials.... and things we mortals haven't even thought about yet?

I'm interested, but not concerned, at the outcome - should I be? Job security? Revenue/taxes? Technology? Sector consolidation? All have little impact in UK & Europe - that's the reality of this proposed change.

Yopu guys all have your private mail list servers but out here in "I used to use egroups" land there are loads of Yahoo mailing list users ready to be scooped up and converted into MS passport accounts, with all the joy that brings

Just as well "Y" isn't next to "W" on the keyboard, isn't it.

We tried that already and found that our two brands did not synergize for the maximum benefit of our shareholders at the time. Of course now that we are a joint venture of Dubai and Beijing that could change. It certainly would help the ailing Mexico brand, considering how many of their customers are switching to using America despite America's insane attempt to prevent the brand from growing.

Coat? What coat?

Yahoo teamed with MS? Match made in hell.

Fav quote:

'Linux takes wisdom, foresight and guts.' Mike Kovacevich

Charles, right on.

Just because MS can do a thing in no way means that they should. But they do not seem to think so. For 20-40 billion, you would think that they could start from scratch and come up with something better than Yahoo, especially since Yahoo is bleeding money.

Its scary.

en

*sigh* had enough trouble trying to get techno-incompetent mailing list subscribers to get a Yahoo! ID after egroups... It ought to be possible to automatically create a passport account from a yahoo ID. They'll still require you to do it manually though.

on the one hand he says that there is no money in open source software( the GPL means something about no soda pop ), then on the other hand he is willing to pay $44 billion for Yahoo!. Yahoo is built on open source software and makes money at it/with it.

So what next? Steve runs for a political office since he's so good at telling his immediate audience what his current truthiness is?

The thing about shotgun marriages is nobody ever trusts the other side. Not a good start for a partnership.

but from what I have read it's MS CFO Kiwi Christopher Liddel who is responsible for this stuff Balmer as always is just an overgrown drooly cheerleader to others ambitions (hasn't got a clue never has never will).

Please, please, please can we have an official Reg poll of whether we prefer:

YahSoft!

or

MicroHoo!

or any other combination thereof.

From a user standpoint the issue is not the search engine (what search engine? :-) ) The really scary thing is that for us 'murkins most of the ISPs like Prodigy, AT&T/Cingular, and Verizon farm their email (at least web access and mail clients) out to Yahoo. And as others have pointed out the Yahoo groups are widely used. I wouldn't want that hijacked by M$.

NO MEANS NO! They have a right to turn down whom they want for what ever reason resulting in whatever outcome.

UserFriendly has a nice take on the situation:

http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20080210

An inside wag has his money on MY!crosoft ;)

I just got my Gmail addy. Get one now, beat the rush.

MicroHoo! ??

YahSoft!

surely it's all Ballyhoo!

I think we all know the end result. The DoJ will approve this (after all, aren't they going to be good little Stepford Officials and let M$ off the antitrust hook this year?) and Balmer et al will gobble up Yahoo! like yesterday's leftovers. I never used Yahoo! except for one or two groups (I am not a fan - frankly, I think Yahoo! sucks bigtime) but I hate to see the Evil Empire win. So play Taps for Yahoo!, give them the 21 gun salute, and prepare to bid a big farewell.

that Yahoo! is courting Fox to take them over, to avoid Microsoft.

Fox!Yahoo!

Microsoft!Yahoo!

I can't tell which compost pile stinks worse.

If MS wants to commit financial suicide in honor of their horrendous business practices, why should we all bitch? Let's enjoy the show!

I know, I'll bring the hot dogs and you guys all bring marshmallows, chocolate bars and grahamcrackers. We can all enjoy the fire while Nero fiddles (or JB swallows JY)!