Microsoft and Yahoo! restart talks

Yes -- they're at it again. Please for the love of all that is sacred, let somebody buy something... quick. From the horse's mouth;

"In light of developments since the withdrawal of the Microsoft proposal to acquire Yahoo! Inc., Microsoft announced that it is continuing to explore and pursue its alternatives to improve and expand its online services and advertising business. Microsoft is considering and has raised with Yahoo! an alternative that would involve a transaction with Yahoo! but not an acquisition of all of Yahoo!"

[Via Emiliano]

[dBs @ May 18th 2008 6:04PM]

"Shit or get off the pot" as they say.

[E71 @ May 18th 2008 7:34PM]

Hey! What's! So! Damn! Funny! About! Yahoo!'s! Name! Anyway?!

[Blackstar @ May 18th 2008 8:29PM]

Should I restart caring?

[nerdtalker @ May 19th 2008 2:29AM]

@ Blackstar:

:~$ /etc/init.d/caring-about-yahoo-microsoft start
Starting caring-about-yahoo-microsoft.../etc/init.d/caring-about-yahoo-microsoft: line 78: start: (2507) - Operation not permitted
failed!

Guess I can't care anymore myself.

[The Return of Moorio @ May 18th 2008 6:06PM]

Wow-wee! Didn't see THIS coming! >.>

[Brendan Sheehan @ May 18th 2008 6:33PM]

Either did John C. Dvorak. That man obviously has no clue what he's talking about.

[CUBSWILLWIN @ May 18th 2008 6:38PM]

I really want this. Benefits microsoft and users

[applefan @ May 18th 2008 8:59PM]

When all this is said and done Google will own Apple and Facebook will have bought Yahoo! and Microsoft will have purchased NASA.

[CUBSWILLWIN @ May 18th 2008 9:29PM]

@applefan

That is my dream future...

[CraigJ @ May 18th 2008 10:42PM]

*Neither. Dvorak should STFU about technology. John hasn't been right since... OK, well never. The fact that he still gets paid for his opinion is testimony to the stupidity of his readers and/or his publishers...

[Seth @ May 18th 2008 6:09PM]

In the words of a mentor of mine: "STOP FLIRTING WITH EACH OTHER"

[ZIM @ May 18th 2008 6:09PM]

Does anyone really give a shit?

[Genjinaro @ May 18th 2008 6:16PM]

Yahoo employees....

[Cal @ May 18th 2008 6:23PM]

Shareholders...

[Neebs @ May 18th 2008 6:28PM]

Microsoft execs...

[dBs @ May 18th 2008 6:37PM]

Everyone except Zim.

[Saad Rabia @ May 18th 2008 6:42PM]

Bill O'reilly

[Paris @ May 18th 2008 7:27PM]

Traders

[Ellianth @ May 18th 2008 7:28PM]

...anyone important?

[Neebs @ May 18th 2008 7:34PM]

to El's question, not really.

[CUBSWILLWIN @ May 18th 2008 9:30PM]

MS fanboys...

[Stiv @ May 18th 2008 10:35PM]

I just took one. Does that count?

[David @ May 19th 2008 12:12AM]

and the MAN : BALLMER really cares

[holycow @ May 18th 2008 6:10PM]

MicroHoo or Microsoft! is imminent!

[paul @ May 18th 2008 10:57PM]

Yahoocrosoft!

[Abuzar @ May 19th 2008 12:18AM]

How about:

Microsoft

Yahoo! nearly isn't important enough to consider a name change.

[Jamar @ May 19th 2008 4:35AM]

Japan begs to differ. It isn't eBay dominating the auction market over there.

[Beenongoing Foraweek @ May 18th 2008 6:12PM]

Does anyone REALLY think Icahn's involvement with this was just because Icahn himself thought it was a good idea?

Billionaires talk to one another, especially when one billionaire has gotten himself into a bad position and needs an external party to help him out of it.

And I'm not talking Yang.

[Johan S @ May 18th 2008 6:18PM]

Instead of out innovating the compoetition, the Microsoft parasite is looking for any alternate way to lock us in.

[Johan S @ May 18th 2008 6:30PM]

@BluRayisDead

I didn't say they'll be successful. Maybe they are running out of things to try out.

[Quikboy @ May 18th 2008 8:17PM]

@JohanS : "compoetition"? Microsoft buys has bought lot of companies. Google buys lots of companies. Does that mean both of them lock in users? If you don't like Microsoft, go ahead and avoid it. Many people don't, and they use it. It's NOT impossible to avoid Microsoft's services. There many other companies hoping you'd use their services and get some money off of you as well.

If you haven't seen WWT, Mediaroom, Surface, Photosynth, Silverlight, and some other upcoming technology, then I don't see how you can be saying they're not trying to out-innovate their competitors. I know for sure that Live Maps and Live Search (both from MS), are far better than the maps and search engine Yahoo! uses. Maybe Yahoo! users should be happy that they'll get the best out of both companies if the Yahoo! gets bought.

[Saad Rabia @ May 18th 2008 6:22PM]

Microsoft:

I want to buy you
I want to acquire you
I want to show you, Yahoo
that I own you

I want your offices
'till the very last door
I want you to drop of
when you want me to stop

And who can annoy you like me ~~ Nobody
Who can share you like me ~~ Nobody
Who can build you like me now, baby ~~ Nobody
Nobody, baby ~~ Nobody
And who can buy it like me ~~ Nobody
And who can develop what you need ~~ Nobody
Who can do you all year long ~~ Nobody
Nobody, baby ~~ Nobody

And the band keeps playing on.

[Das @ May 18th 2008 6:34PM]

You can better whatever deal is made now is gonna be a lot less attractive for yahoo shareholders, and they can thank their good friend Jerry Yang for that.

[zackkk @ May 18th 2008 6:40PM]

MICROHOO!

[Juri @ May 18th 2008 6:48PM]

one more restart, huh?
i see dead people...
stuttering stanley!
locked windows
system failure
blue screen of death
oh wait, let's restart.
:)

[bbiessel @ May 18th 2008 6:58PM]

What's with all the goddamn poems?

[Stiv @ May 18th 2008 10:39PM]

Roses are Rred,
Violets are blue,
They wrote those poems

a. Because they love Yahoo!
b. To annoy you.
c. To help them have a poo.

[Maestro @ May 18th 2008 6:59PM]

Played some yahoo stock on the last dip after MS walked away...made a cool sum...

[Daniel @ May 18th 2008 7:01PM]

when writing yahoo! in a sentence it just makes it seem like everyone is excited! because of the exclamation! mark.

[rip @ May 18th 2008 7:06PM]

Both of your comments are typical short-sighted Wall St. stupidity. Make a buck now and lose a company tomorrow.

Yahoo and it's corporate culture is a TERRIBLE fit with Microsoft. THey have two completely different and clashing cultures. A buyout will result in Yahoo employees fleeing for the exits. The merger will be difficult and costly. All that will probably occur is what happened with Hotmail, running a once popular service into irrelevance. You'll just get an unsupported Yahoo with proprietary MSN crap grafted onto it.

Microsoft has proven time and time again that it does NOT know how to be either creative or innovative. Those qualities are simply nonexistent in its culture. Think of what would happen if Microsoft bought a company like Apple(not that it would ever happen). You'd get a little short term boost in products and creativity. But eventually all the best people from Apple would leave for other companies or startups.

The only people that want this are short term stock traders and Ballmer. And Ballmer wants this just because he is trying to do something to save his abysmal record as CEO. As usual, he's done the wrong thing in the wrong way.

Yes, Yahoo stockholders might make a quick buck. But in the long term it will be a money losing situation for Microsoft.

[WS @ May 18th 2008 7:24PM]

Isn't this why MS has been involved in all those anti-trust lawsuits? Because they buy "pieces" of a company, slump on it's development, which leads to eventually running said company into the ground. The remaining pieces they pick up for next to nothing, keep what they want, and wipe out all traces of the business...

The absorption of Yahoo! into MS may take a while, but here is their foot in the door... again.

[Steffen Jobbs @ May 18th 2008 8:03PM]

More stock manipulation. I'll bet a lot of insiders are making good money by moving the stock up and down by starting and stopping talks, then starting again. Yahoo's stock isn't worth what MS is paying for it so I'm sure the owners of Yahoo don't have much leverage. I'm sure their investors are totally pissed and now Yahoo is going to have to probably take less than what was offered the first time around. Guaranteed the stock will be up by about $3 - $5 tomorrow.

[David @ May 18th 2008 8:03PM]

@Rip

Selling up at 60% above market value is a fairly sound decision short, medium & long term. Yahoo! have been bleeding market share for a long time, so unless you think that yahoo! is grossly undervalue, you sell. Are you seriously telling me that in the face of an offer 62% above market value, a good investor would hold?

Microsoft on the other hand... fair ranting.

[Matt @ May 18th 2008 8:36PM]

My MicroHoo dream lives again!!

[MrStu @ May 18th 2008 9:10PM]

To "Rip",

Not to pop your ballon, but a public company does not exist to:
a. To make it's employees happy.
b. Provide income for anybody, but the stock holder.
c. Make the consumer, user, or fan happy.

Also, so what if 50% or more of the current yahoo employees leave. Just like all employees the vast majority ARE replaceable. You are, I am, the idiot screaming at this post saying "he isn't" is. The US percieves itself going into a recession, so just like all the other sheep the Yahoo staff will say they are leaving, but only a few will. They have to make the mortgage payment too.

So simply, Ichan is right. Jerry Yang is a putz... I

stu

[El Taco @ May 18th 2008 9:53PM]

WHAT BILL WANT, BILL GET!

[supermeerkat @ May 19th 2008 4:38AM]

Bill doesn't live there any more!

[Adrian @ May 18th 2008 9:57PM]

no means no!

[IndiaTech @ May 19th 2008 5:06AM]

That's what she said.

[ItGuy @ May 18th 2008 10:26PM]

To Mr Stu(PID):

You are the reason corporate America sucks so bad (and I work in it)

"Not to pop your ballon, but a public company does not exist to:
a. To make it's employees happy."

You don't make your employees happy, they leave. Your expense to acquire new employees goes up. Profit goes down. If they don't leave, productivity goes down. Happy employees stay and are productive. All drive up costs and down profits.

"b. Provide income for anybody, but the stock holder."

And what income would that be? Dividends? Few companies pay 'em. About the only thing that you have a "responsibility" to do is run the company right - good solid financials, decent growth, controlled costs, etc. Sadly few any more look at the long term and focus on the short term which is good for nobody.

"c. Make the consumer, user, or fan happy."

Upset your consumers, users, or fans and guess what? Sales dry up and your company closes up. See Dell, Microsoft, GM, etc. for prime examples of this. See Apple, Google, Bose, etc. to see how to do it right. It's no wonder that the companies that keep the fans, consumers, and users happy have better performance than those that don't. You can ignore your customers for so long before they just go elsewhere. Then they tell anyone that will listen and pretty soon you will see lower sales. Continue not making people happy and you will go out of business.

Might I suggest you go back to school and learn about business before you spout your pie hole?