If Microsoft bought Yahoo! it would be very unwise (stupid) of them to change it in any way, from what people are used to. It would be shooting themselves in the foot. What they should do is help with a better business model why reaping the rewards. You’re going to get emotional responses any time Microsoft is involved, but if they keep their heads about them they might see that it could possibly work.
If you can not invent or improve, acquire. Microsoft can not do anything original. It is a company with a lot of money that will copy others inventions. Look at Vista (a wanna be), Zune (an inferior far miss copy of the ipod), Xbox (in it for the money). Can you think of anything the company has done in the past 10 years that is new or inventive. Microsoft purchases great technology, changes it so that it can make a profit at our expense. It does all this by buying out the competition for something it can not do on it’s own. If the acquisition goes through, Microsoft will bring Yahoo down, but make money doing it.
As an online advertiser I’m enthusiastic about anything that has the potential to compete with Google. Google got lucky with an extremely profitable business model and has supplanted Microsoft as the most egotistical and pretentiousness. Users think Google is a godsend for their “free” services while advertisers like me know they are a self-serving online monopoly and their power is growing unchecked.
Now that Google is vulnerable with their stock price dropping, it is the perfect time for Microsoft to come after them with both barrels. Managing a business in a challenging or shrinking environment is the test for executives and Google has never gone through it. We will soon see if the “Google Guys” are really as smart as they think they are because the bear is coming and he is hungry.
Only if they don’t chnage Yahoo!. I’ve been using Yahoo! mail, homepage, etc. forever (since they came on teh scene). I love Yahoo! messenger way more than MSN. As much as I hate Microsoft, though, I would hate to see Yahoo! fall by the wayside. Google is only popular because the media says it should be. Yahoo! needs to jump on that bandwagon, and maybe this is the turn around they need. I can’t stand Google (I do not “google” anything) and would never switch. Viva la Yahoo!
This is the worst thing that could happen for people that use services that have been gobbled up by Yahoo (such as myself and Flickr). Many, MANY people I know that used the Flickr service have noticed a downturn since it was sold to Yahoo, and if it gets into the hands of an even more uncaring company such as MS, then it’s bound to spell doom for such a great community and website.
Also, that’ll probably be the end of any Mac-compatible Flickr uploaders, since MS does just about everything it can to knock Apple out of the game, especially where the users hearts are (in the creative fields).
Great news, soon Google will have a formidable competitor and this will be good for all consumers and internet users.
Is there anything I use that won’t soon be owned by Microsoft? I used to be a big fan until their operating system got worse and worse. This company ruins everything they touch; have you tried Vista? I guess when it happens I will switch my Yahoo account to something else; definitely not Microsoft.
Nifty.
Most people may not remember that once upon a time–10 years ago or so, which is ancient by Web standards–Yahoo! held the mindshare that Google currently does. They were the innovators, the young upstarts, the ones who could do no wrong.
If they sell out, there goes one of the last, big independent voices on the Web.
And there goes my Yahoo! Mail. If it becomes just another component of Hotmail–which I despise and refuse to use–then I’m switching to Gmail permanently, I suppose. Sigh.
Let’s see, this would also get them the Yahoo Messenger client, but how would it affect AT&T’s alliance with Yahoo? Would this put Microsoft into the telecommunications business as well?
Keith, I agree. I’ve been using Yahoo Mail for 10 years, but I’ll switch if the merger goes through. MS is all about forcing everyone to buy Windows and its appendages, and my response is that I’ll never use any of their products I’m not forced to use.
Raman, a little-known fact is that MS actually started out acquiring. Gates bought Q-DOS for $75k from Seattle Computer Products in the early 1980’s, sold part of it to IBM as IBM-DOS, then another part to everyone else as MS-DOS, then later parlayed that into Windows, and operating systems into leverage for everything else. So this is not really a change in their business model at all.
Personally, this breaks my heart. I have been a big fan of the Yahoo! story and Yahoo! services since they showed up in the mid 1990’s. I hate to see them get swallowed by the Great Redmond Blob. Unfortunately, they were slow to react to a more nimble competitor and never caught up. Such are the perils of capitalism…Good luck, Jerry, we’ll miss you!
So hotmail and yahoo mail accounts will be under the same umbrella, and Microsoft becomes the once-little company that’s getting even bigger… Microsoft is definitely the actualization of the American dream, and for that I can’t fault them, though I dislike a lot about the company and many of its products.
Still, I think MSFT is maturing perhaps too much for its industry. Where it started out creating new products to shine, it is now adopting the older company strategy of simply buying others with extant products to grow. Eventually, another young upstart with something totally new will come along and knock this current giant off the hill. It happens.
ianrandalstrock.livejournal.com
When Yahoo outlawed political chat room postings last year, it attempted to stifle free speech … in a … free society … driving large numbers of its audience and user base … else where.
Getting rid of the “politically correct” crowd and restoring its old “Wild West” political chat rooms … particularly in an election year … could bring millions of people back to Yahoo … where they are targets for Yahoo’s advertisers … one would think Yahoo’s management would have known it was … stupid … to stifle free speech.
I gave up on yahoo several months ago and moved to gmail. I like all of the neat things that google offers. Google shows progressive ideas such as word processor online, great maps and I like igoogle better than yahoo home page.
Well, I love my Yahoo Mail and home page, but if they become another MS property I will switch to Google for everything. Not the biggest Microsoft fan – I bet others will have the same reaction.
Great! If this goes through, we can look forward to Yahoo! also becoming a platform that’s hostile to any OS other than Windows …
Microsoft’s offer is no surprise, given the fact that it’s online segment has been struggling since its inception.
Yahoo has a lot of real estate in terms of subscription and such, so it makes sense that its management would want to squeeze Microsoft a bit further to about $37 a share.
If Microsoft does end up buying Yahoo, this may be first time in memory that, it may end up have a bit of debt on its balancesheet, as Microsoft will be hard pressed to seek out other businesses to keep competition at bay.
With Windows slated to be not a dominant force 10 to 15 years from now (Personally I use windows like heck), it will be interesting to know what Steve Ballmer has in store for Microsoft to keep it on the forefront.
It seems Steve Ballmer has changed his four step business model from
1. Invent something
2. Get Something to Critical Mass
3. Milk it like heck when it is in critical mass
4. Create a culture in which you can do step 1 again
to
1. Aquire something
2. Get Something to Critical Mass
3. Milk it like heck when it is in critical mass
4. Create a culture in which you can do step 1 again
I think there are also marketing reasons why other engines, for example, Google, has an advantage over Yahoo!. I dont know how many of you have played with Google Maps, but there’s something about looking at your childhood home in St. Petersburg, the Eiffel Tower, the Vatican, and Times Square in a period of 5 minutes. Yahoo, i just checked, has nothing of the sort. In fact, I can’t see anything on their site that wasn’t there 3 years ago. MSFT will do a much better job.
About time yahoo sells out, they cant manage it alone.Microsoft needs yahoo’s search technology to compete with google. This will turn the heater on google since microsoft will have full access to yahoo’s vast email and messenger users also.
Another anticompetitive abuse by Microsoft, and another place for Microsoft to propagate more of its buggy, bloated, insecure code. Look for the Yahoo search engine to be incorporated into Windows, making it even more of a fat sloppy resource hog.
I believe yahoo has always supported viruses, erotic webcam girls, and cheaters since they are so cheap when it comes to maintaining their yahoo-games. No wonder why their stock is doing so bad. Their stock deserves to keep falling until they decide to fix their problems in the lobby’s of their yahoo-games.
Yes, I think MSFT will make an offer soon. Also, I bet MNST, ADBE, LOCM and MCHX all get buyout offers in the next 6 months.
Well I was a shareholder at one time and have looked at it several times but so far haven’t taken a bite of Yahoo as it lacks any real compelling reason to buy in. I think at this stage and price the argument for a takeover makes sense, and maybe a new management team can make Yahoo payoff. They have a lot of quality assets but nothing seems to be paying off in the current scheme, so I think a major shakeup is needed.
I feel this is high time for Yahoo to sell it self off atleast it would reduce competition between the lower order and try to look at how the new corp can compete with GOOG. When I say YAHOO can sell itself noww meant whn the whole US economy comes back in track or atleast steadies
Well, I’ve seen Yahoo decline in leaps and bounds over the last 3 years. The Yahoo chat rooms got so bad that I ended up launching my own similar chat site a few months ago called OohYa Chat, and Mike it does have a free politics room and you can say whatever you want.
Eventhough Yahoo is falling apart, Microsoft will strip it and destroy it. It’s probably the best thing that could ever happen for Google.