Saturday, February 02, 2008

Microsoft pursues Yahoo. The tech world pauses

Big news yesterday in the geek world as Microsoft announced an unsolicited offer to buy Yahoo for $44.6 billion. I shared a few perspectives on the proposed deal. Here's a quick look at some of the notables:
  • The Toronto Star. Microsoft Yahoo bid about Google. Byline Chris Sorensen. Coolness factor: The article focused on the transition from computers to services that's at the heart of this offer - and indeed the entire tech industry. There was otherwise relatively little focus on this issue yesterday, which surprised me.
Your turn: Any thoughts on this proposed megamerger?

8 comments:

November Rain said...

well my intro to the internet was geocities which was cool

Esp Geocities clubs but then Yahoo bought it...

Suddenly they didn't like clubs and made the groups and there were so many changes that had so many bugs

(breath breath breath pant pant pant)

that for a while it was frustrating

google did far better when they joined with blogger


so my guest is it will mean more bugs for those I know who still use Yahoo groups

michelle sent me today

Anonymous said...

Not here via Michele, but on my own.

Economies of scale notwithstanding, I take the position that customer service invariably suffers with mergers. Yahoo! stockholders will do OK, because they'll get the benefit of Microsoft's other products. In the meantime, someone else will fill the void Yahoo!'s departure will create.

I agree with NR, above. This is a big opportunity for Google, if it can rise to the occasion.

Cheers.

Chrissea said...

I really need to move to Canada!
Here from Michele's tonight.

As if Bill Gates needs anything more....

Anonymous said...

As long as they don't mess up yahoos (free) webmail, it matters little to me how this takeover plays out.

Alex.

kenju said...

I heard a funny thing on our news tonight. The commentator said of the proposed merger....."When is the last time you Yahoo-ed anything?"

Girl About Town said...

Hi just browsing...Michele sent me!

Anonymous said...

i suppose it doesn't matter much to me as I don't really use Yahoo.

Michele sent me.

rashbre said...

still be interesting to see what MS does with two overlapping product sets (ie around MSN/Hotmail and the Yahoo stuff.)

In the past, MS has sometimes been ruthless with its own stuff (remember Blackbird vs HTML? and even the infamous Bob). I suppose when the IE top right gets Yahoo MS Search things get interesting.