Ray Ozzies experience...

Notes was a great product in need of a usability makeover and dynamic marketing. Having been bought by IBM, it got neither.

Groove was great technology with potential to own the groupware space. It outdid SharePoint but was easier and cheaper to setup and run.

Yahoo has a cost-effective and scalable web applications platform...

I think we can all see where this is headed.

Nor, arguably, has a previous purchase played such a central strategic role.

Has the author ever heard of DOS ?

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I call Fox Technologies (Foxpro), HoTMaiL, and whoever made DOS and the *original* DBMS behind SQL Server.

Heh, even Windows NT was something out of a joint operation for OS/2 or something...

A hidden reason behind the acquisition is that Microsoft realises that it needs to use Open Source software to be competitive in the Data Centre and Cloud Computing.

The problem of course is if they do that, then they are admitting that Windows Vista is the total piece of crap that people think it is.

So now when Microsoft want to use Open Source, they can just put it under the Yahoo brand.

Quite a clever strategy and one that is sure to make them competitive with Google's data centres in terms of processing power efficiency.

Wait for a few months first, then they don't need to upgrade hardware to migrate to MS products... The customers that leave in disgust will lower the load, and the MS software will take up the slack in system resources.

I've been looking over what Yahoo services I personally currently use and preparing a strategy for migration in the event that MS do buy them out. If it happens, I want to be out of their ASAP, taking my intellectual property with me.

"Microsoft has mostly grown organically rather than by acquistion" - WTF????

SQL server was sybase I think..

One might think the most applicable lessons would be from the history of MSN, and its success, or lack thereof.

(And if I were a Yahoo share holder, this would be enough to set me against the sale as anything.)

At least MS and Yahoo have respect for IP unlike Google who seems hell bent leaching content for their ads.