Why Microsoft Is Chasing Yahoo 245
latif writes "Microsoft has been chasing Yahoo for quite a while now. Most people think that it all started with Microsoft's acquisition bid for Yahoo, but this is not so. It is well-known that Microsoft and Yahoo have been negotiating since at least May of 2006, and may have been negotiating since 2003. I have done a thorough analysis utilizing information made public over the past five years and my analysis suggests that most people are completely wrong about what Microsoft wants from Yahoo."
Re:Jealousy (Score:0, Informative)
Krispy Kremes have a soft filling though...
Re:brain and brain... what is brain? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Perfect Strangers ? (Score:5, Informative)
Google was around before the Dot-com bust, and in the late 1990s was already showing itself to be a fierce competitor to Yahoo. Your knowledge of search engine history is pathetically incorrect.
Re:Pretending they have a chance. (Score:2, Informative)
Heh... Stock valuation doesn't indicate anything save what price a shareseller is willing to part with his shares over.
It doesn't, overall, indicate anything of the state of affairs within the company or it's actual overall health. They don't have the cash war-chest they used to have (they paid out dividends recently, remember...) and Vista's a flop and Office is sitting stagnant compared to it's past sales.
Not sitting as pretty in the long term as the stock price would lead you to believe it is.
Re:Perfect Strangers ? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Perfect Strangers ? (Score:3, Informative)
Some stuff doesn't work - you can't flag spam as spam (you can still delete them).
But overall that's the version I've been using and it's fine for my purposes.
In fact Gmail originally did not have a "no javascript" UI - they only added that later.
Re:MS-YHOO would never work. (Score:3, Informative)
Many people have predicted the doom of MS with every little new competitor and/or technology fad. One of the things that has kept MS in the game is money. Lots of money. They still make profits on their core products which support their other not-so profitable products. Frankly if MS wasn't behind things like Xbox and Zune, those brands would have folded by now. While they are not bad products, Xbox hasn't been profitable until recently and Zune has a way to go. If they were independent companies, they would have had to declare bankruptcy and disappear. (Xbox divison is still $6 billion in debt historically)
Up until now that huge cash reserve has allowed them to do things to keep them in the game. They have been able to buy out companies that may have been competitors or had key pieces of technology that they needed. If MS were to buy out Yahoo, that major advantage would be dwindled. From what I read about the merger deal, it would have been a 50/50 stock and cash deal. At the asking price of $44.6 billion, MS would need to raise $22.3 billion in cash. They have about $21 billion in cash, but MS will not be using the cash reserve. Instead they will borrow the money.
While MS will still retain cash for the future, this deal will set the company slightly in debt from an overall standpoint. While MS stock is in mostly a hold position, investors are fickle. Any future set backs might send investors into selling out. This is a risky venture for MS if it doesn't work out.
Re:Pretending they have a chance. (Score:1, Informative)
Wow, just random statements with no proof. Very nicely and politely stated, but doesnt change that most of them taken objectively are complete bullshit. Let me try...
the simple fact is I have NEVER seen hatred for a product like I have for Vista,and that includes WinME.
Hatred for Vista? Methinks people who can hate bits of software have other "issues" that need to be checked out.
I have been building,selling,repairing and customizing PCs and networks since the days of DOS and Win3.1,but the sheer public hatred for the stink that is Vista is just unreal. I recently built a machine for a customer whose sole requirement was that this machine be upgrading for a long while so he wouldn't have to touch Vista,and this is for a guy who has been happily using WinME for the past 8 years!
Oh, so you're trying to establish credibility now. This is *your* opinion. Very well, duly noted.
And when the teenyboppers come in with their parents to have a new machine built and I mention Vista as an option I get a VERY loud EEEEEW!,like I took a crap in front of them or something.
I see. Teenyboppers? What a fantastic way to determine if an OS actually works. Why do we even do reviews. We should just ask you, and you'll poll the 5 tennyboppers that you meet and we're done. Pffft! Paying people to actually write reviews. What a bunch of idiots.
But I am typing this on a 1.1GHz Celeron with 512Mb of RAM that runs great as a simple Netbox,and I have plenty of customers that are quite happy with their 1.7-3.2GHz Intels and AMDs.
So? Vista was never targeted for people who go out and buy OSs. Its for people who go and buy new PCs. This is elementary. Yawn!
And then they really shoot themselves in the foot with Vista by killing XP, which means that those who can't afford Apple or don't have a friend with a pirate XP disc will end up on some sort of Linux like the EEE,
Shot themselves in the foot? Do you have any objective indicator of measuring that. A ton of new PCs *are* indeed sold with Vista pre-installed. Ofcource you'll reply with some bull about people downgrading to XP. But you *dont* have the numbers. So whats the point? You're two neighbours wiped Vista and Installed XP? Is that how you prove it? When that doesnt work either you or some other idiot will reply with "but they're a monopoly!!". They might be in the business of selling OSs, but nobody put a gun to your head. Go buy a mac or install ubuntu. You cant control your work environment, coz its not your damn company. When you *do* start one, make it an all linux shop. Till then, stop whining.
So what does MSFT do? Do they do the smart thing and keep XP on the lower end and only sell Vista on machines powerful enough to run it well? Maybe put out a Windows 2008 professional to get those businesses and home users that are avoiding Vista like the plague to continue buying MSFT?
Smart? According to you I bet. Good thing you're not their strategy go-to guy. The decision that XP was going to be phased out when LH/Vista came out was made *years* ago. And yes, it was public on their lifecycle page. If you didnt already know that, now you do.
When Allchin himself [nwsource.com],who oversaw some of the most profitable years of Windows,says he would buy a Mac rather than take Vista and retires the second it comes out to keep from being blamed you know they are in trouble
At that time Vista wasnt a finished product. He was comparing it to a finished product. I would say thats a good thing. Oh and the last part is complete BS. Quit when it comes out to avoid blame. Wow.. How childish. That logic might work on a 13yr old.
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Vista is definitely not a flop. I think its a universally known fact that bashing MS or Apple causes a spike in web traffic. Not saying that everybody liked Vista, thats impossible and absurd. But th
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