

Microsoft may buy Yahoo and AOL if the latter two merge - qhoxie
http://venturebeat.com/2008/09/26/microsoft-may-buy-yahoo-and-aol-if-the-latter-two-merge/

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endtwist
I'm really curious to see what happens with this. Obviously, Microsoft wants
to match (and eventually outdo) Google in the advertising market, hence their
desperate attempts to swallow Yahoo.

Unfortunately, I don't actually think an acquisition like this will pan out
for anyone -- neither Microsoft, nor the customers. Mind you, my commentary is
purely armchair speculation, but I really can't see how this will put
Microsoft on any positive track. Without a doubt, after attaining Yahoo/AOL,
everything will receive some sort of (unnecessary) overhaul to better
integrate it with their business. This could, in turn, anger a hell of a lot
of users of services that Yahoo provides. As well, I can see AOL disappearing
into MSN, and Yahoo being refocused and shrunk to merely a marketing sector of
Microsoft. Everything else will either be discarded, sold off, or overhauled
on a massive scale.

Perhaps I'm completely wrong about everything, but I don't like the direction
this is going. Also, this is all very speculative to begin with, since it
relies on a very significant sequence of events.

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iigs
I guess if you're #3, and you buy and extinguish #2 that makes you #2 by
default.

Somehow this gets by the anti-trust people because #1 is so much bigger.

This is an ego "measuring contest" plain and simple. There's no synergy to be
had here -- AOL is lost in the weeds, and is at best a decent co-brand for
content on news sites. Yahoo's corporate culture appears to have no synergy
with the evil empire whatsoever; in fact, it seems that they've gone on as
long as they have using MS as an enemy to rally against.

Bringing dead weight and a struggling enemy on board doesn't sound like the
basis of a coherent strategy for taking on a master in the game.

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stanley
Wow, it's just going to be one giant clusterfuck.

~~~
natrius
That's actually what they're going to call it. The rebranding effort will
rival Cingular/at&t's.

 _Microsoft, Yahoo! and AOL are the new OGC._

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adduc
It'd be nice to have one official client for the three IM services each offer.

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jhickner
...thus cementing their fate.

