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Yahoo Deal Is Big, but Is It the Next Big Thing?
Journal written by mattsgotredhair (945945) and posted by
Soulskill
on Sunday February 03, @08:23AM
from the keeping-up-with-the-googses dept.
from the keeping-up-with-the-googses dept.
mattsgotredhair brings us a NYTimes article discussing how Microsoft's bid for Yahoo contrasts against one of the core philosophies of Silicon Valley: looking forward. From the Times:
"Microsoft may see Yahoo as its last best chance to catch up. But for all its size and ambition, the bid has not been greeted with enthusiasm. That may be because Silicon Valley favors bottom-up innovation instead of growth by acquisition. The region's investment money and brain power are tuned to start-ups that can anticipate the next big thing rather than chase the last one. 'This is the very nature of the Valley,' said Jim Breyer of the venture capital firm Accel Partners. 'After very strong growth, businesses by definition start to slow as competition increases and young creative start-ups begin to attack the incumbents.'"
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Yahoo Bid shows Microsoft on the Ropes 388 comments
Ponca City, We Love You writes "One day after the announcement of Microsoft's plan to buy Yahoo, there is an interesting piece from the NY Times analyzing the reasons behind Microsoft's bid and proposing that the bid is a tacit, and difficult, admission that Microsoft did not get its online business right and that online losses continue to mount while Google makes billions in profit. Microsoft "finds itself in a battle where improving its search algorithms and online ad software is not going to be enough," writes the Times. With the Yahoo bid Microsoft is trying to buy a big enough share of the market to be a credible alternative to Google with online advertisers. "This shows just how worried Microsoft is by Google," says David B. Yoffie. "Microsoft has faced competitive threats before, but none with the size, strength, profitability and momentum of Google.""
[+]
Yahoo May Re-Consider Google Alliance, Rebuff Microsoft 254 comments
anastasd writes "Reuters is reporting that Yahoo might consider a business alliance with Google as a way to top a $44.6 billion takeover proposal by Microsoft. 'Yahoo management is considering revisiting talks it held with Google several months ago on an alliance as an alternative to Microsoft's bid, that source said. At $31 a share, Yahoo believes the bid undervalues the company, two sources said. A second source close to Yahoo said it had received a procession of preliminary contacts by media, technology, telephone and financial companies. But the source said they were unaware whether any alternative bid was in the offing.'"
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wrong city (Score:5, Funny)
No, that's San Francisco.
What about Google? (Score:5, Funny)
I really do not get it... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:I really do not get it... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:I really do not get it... (Score:5, Insightful)
So either they'll have to do like they did with Hotmail, and let it run on FreeBSD until they've basically re-written in from scratch to use their technology. Of course, that will be very costly, and likely nowhere near as good as the original (like we've seen with Hotmail). They'll be in the same position they are now, except having spent far more money.
The HP/Compaq merger was far more about combining product lines, management teams, R&D, support teams, etc. That is, it was more about an organizational merger, rather than a technological acquisition.
Re:I really do not get it... (Score:5, Informative)
The move was simply them "buying" marketshare in an attempt to trump Google.
Ummm, you are aware that Microsoft has not actually bought Yahoo, right? MS has made Yahoo an offer. Yahoo has not yet responded to that offer.
Re:I really do not get it... (Score:5, Insightful)
This is a hostile take over where the purchaser could care less what either the board and the management thinks or responds.
Re:I really do not get it... (Score:5, Insightful)
("The HP Way," Hewlett-Packard co-founder David Packard, page 142)
Re:I really do not get it... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:I really do not get it... (Score:5, Insightful)
This is what MS did before and it worked back then (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:This is what MS did before and it worked back t (Score:5, Insightful)
I really doubt that MS will disappear due to this or other missteps, but that does not mean the probabilities are nil to none.
But they already have Search (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:This is what MS did before and it worked back t (Score:4, Insightful)
Is Silicon Valley right? (Score:5, Interesting)
Sure, Silicon Valley VC folks love startups, because they get a piece of the action. Heck, they were happy as pigs in shit around 1998, despite the fact that about 1% of those startups had any hope of seeing a profit. But it doesn't mean that MS+Yahoo is destined to lose, simply because they're not the chic pick anymore.
None of that has any bearing on whether MS+Yahoo can beat Google or any of the hordes of little companies coming from Silicon Valley.
Other reasons for not being warm to the reception (Score:5, Interesting)
More criticism... (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=email_en&sid=am1odVZXMwjk [bloomberg.com]
Can you say bye bye Balmer (Score:4, Funny)
Heck of a job, Balmy!
Wha? Isnt being acquired the dream ? (Score:5, Interesting)
Vut that is true for the small startups. For a company that used to be a big boy itself, may be it is not a very "respectable" thing. But respect is probably over rated anyway.
Favors bottom-up innovation? What about Cisco? (Score:5, Insightful)
Lewis Black's take on this ... (Score:5, Funny)
We need to build a big fuckin' thing. I don't care what it is, so long as it's big
This is about realestate, not rewarding innovation (Score:4, Insightful)
Yahoo is a country with lots of geography. That's what Microsoft is buying.
It's not a new widget. It's not Web 2.0. It's not some sort of way-kewl social site with a new innovative bent.
It's the real estate. One more time: Microsoft is buying web real estate, not bottom feeding, not buying rotten tech.
MS loses to Google because of their choices (Score:5, Interesting)
MS's management will continue to make bad choices. If they had enough money to buy Google itself, and if anti-trust concerns weren't a factor, it wouldn't matter. They would break Google and push it into the ground. They problem isn't their strategic position. The problem is in between their ears.
Look at Hotmail and Gmail. Hotmail was a very early web email service. MS bought them. Then they just let it sit there. MS people saw Oddpost coming down the road, and they should have gotten all pumped up with what was possible. That's apparently what happened at Google -- someone saw that fancy Oddpost ajax email client, and said, let's do this better than Oddpost is doing it.
MS doesn't try to do much until someone pokes them with a stick, and a lot of times they don't do much even then. Right now the world is screaming at them about all of the things wrong with Vista, and their response is -- no, you are all STUPID, and we are right, and you just don't get how awesome Vista is.
They're not fixing anything.
They're the victims of their own monopoly. They're fat and stupid and lazy, and they think the world owes them success. They're insanely profitable, but it's because they're in the catbird seat, and not because they're earning it. They don't have to earn it, and because they don't feel the heat, they can't earn it.
So you know, sit back in your lavish headquarters, and reminisce about how great it was to go out and threaten to cut off people's air supplies, and how wonderful the world was when you could bully people effectively.
I feel bad for yahoo. I remember when it was just some page on a guy's workstation at stanford. They did a lot of great things. They don't deserve this ignominious fate.
And there are stories floating around that yahoo people are saying -- there's no way in hell that we'll work for MS. So, MS, know that everyone dislikes you. And know that it's a direct consequence of your deliberately cultivated culture of bullying and thuggery.
Everyone at yahoo knows that when you buy that company, you're going to break it, and that going to work on a day to day basis is going to suck. And believe it or not, that has a lot to do with why you will not beat google.
Someday google will suck too. Their culture will rot, and dumb people will climb on top of the smart people. But that day is a long way off.
So you know, go off and think about how to make sure my monitor will prevent me from playing unauthorized videos, or how to make my computer's audio system check up on the license status of my music. Because I'm your customer, and believe me, that's what I'm really pining away for. That's what I want more than anything. You know me so well it's scary sometimes.
Re:What makes a search engine worth so much ? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Could it be .... (Score:5, Interesting)
Unfortunately for MS, the real threat to Google will most likely be from another startup kind of like what this article is getting at. What I find intersting is that if the patent system actually worked, one of the early search engines such as web crawler or alta vista would still control the market and companies such as Google and MS would have had to bow out secondary to valid patents. - and this would allow these companies in theory to grow their technology - plus they could use the patent clout to recruit the appropriate talent (in theory).
In the end the thing that will hurt the US economy the most is globalization and the realization that intelligence and the ability to "create" isn't as valuable as it may seem. It can be converted to a commodity along with almost everything else.
If soft engineers in this country want protection, they will most likely need a union and a licensing exam like lawyers and doctors