I jumped on to the web today to find out the most recent verdict on the Microhoo! investment. Yahoo has received a lot of pressure from stockholders and consumers who have complained that Yahoo would be a sell out if it sells to Microsoft.
I mentioned previously that Yahoo! and Microsoft would have had trouble merging, even though Microsoft has been adamant that a Yahoo! acquisition would strengthen their presence on the web. And of course, many questions arise about what happens with Yahoo mail and Hotmail if they were combined.
In any case, Yahoo finally concluded to Microsoft that they would have to step out of the offer because Microsoft had largely undervalued the company with its February 1st bid of $44.6 billion.
More on this in Infoworld's article, "Cheapskate."
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Yahoo Decides to Regroup
Friday, February 1, 2008
Microsoft-Yahoo
The world is abuzz today as Microsoft has proposed to buy Yahoo! AND Yahoo! is actually considering the offer. There are often mixed feelings for users of services acquisitions happen like this. Microsoft isn't great when it comes to innovation and has been better at simply buying companies who innovate well.
I'm surprised because in some ways, I felt like I should have seen this coming. Microsoft started to go after the big players when they made a bid on Facebook and it's starting to be come clearer now that they want a bigger share of the online space, while they have been leaders in desktop software for a long time.
Economically speaking, mergers are never good for consumers. First of all, Yahoo's problem recently has been in scalability and Microsoft can't solve that problem. There is going to be a lot of organizational change if and when the merger takes place. Second, Microsoft's goals and Yahoo's don't seem well aligned. Microsoft is a stodgy old, uninnovative company and Yahoo needs to figure out some way to act quicker, stay nimble against their number 1 competitor Google.
Maybe it's because I am a user of Yahoo products, but this just sounds like a bad idea.
Other articles fielded on this story:
