
Microsoft rules out Yahoo acquisition (again) - nreece
http://www.theage.com.au/news/technology/biztech/microsoft-ceo-rules-out-yahoo-acquisition/2008/11/07/1225561122459.html
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mdasen
I think this is a mistake for Microsoft. I think they should have offered
$18/share and seen Yahoo's response. At this point, with a down economy and no
Google revenues to prop them up, Yahoo might simply spend them selves into
bankruptcy before they can turn it around.

And, of course, $18/share is about half of what Microsoft offered less than a
year ago. Was Yahoo not a good company to acquire 6 months ago? Saying that
you won't buy Yahoo for half the price is admitting that your previous plans
were simply wrong.

Has Microsoft decided that Yahoo bankrupt is as good as Yahoo bought? Does
Microsoft think they'll be able to buy them even cheaper if they rebuff and
wait?

~~~
jm4
I'm not so sure it was a mistake. If you want to put on a tinfoil hat for a
minute we could speculate that Microsoft wasn't genuinely interested the first
time. That botched acquisition was a media circus and effectively destroyed
Yahoo. Since then, consumer and shareholder confidence in both the business
and leadership has completely eroded to the point where Yahoo is simply unable
to compete effectively. Perhaps that was Microsoft's intent all along. It
certainly costs a lot less money than having to win with superior product
development.

Even without conspiracy theories and speculation it is impossible to deny that
Yahoo is a much different company than it was just six months ago. Top talent
has been jumping ship. There have been layoffs. Marketshare and mindshare have
been on the decline. Those are all of Yahoo's most valuable assets.

Not only is there now less value in any partnership or acquisition but public
perception of such a deal will be much less positive than it would have been
before. In fact, it could be seen as very negative. There were already a few
naysayers asking why Microsoft would want the Yahoo monkey on its back. Since
then, the situation has become much worse. It can no longer be perceived as
two worthy competitors to Google forming an alliance to create something
great. Now, it's more like Yahoo is having a going out of business sale. The
point was to display strength and now it appears weak.

Microsoft may still acquire Yahoo, but the point I'm trying to make is that
it's a different type of deal now and one that would be made for different
reasons. I think they're going to weigh their options and not do anything too
hasty. It's not like they have to jump on this right away. I don't think
anyone else is going to be in a big hurry to buy Yahoo. Even at $18 a share
it's a very expensive deal that not many companies can afford.

In the end I think Microsoft probably will end up buying them, but I wouldn't
be surprised if it's several months from now. I think the first deal was more
about marketshare and public perception than it was about technology. Now that
that's no longer a viable strategy they're probably going to want to take a
serious look at what they'd be getting for their money. Besides, Microsoft's
shareholders need to be convinced it's for the right reasons so it's not such
a bad thing if they let things quiet down a bit and then snatch up Yahoo for
even less money next year. By then it will appear much more like they're
taking advantage of a great deal than betting the farm trying to beat Google.

------
dmoney
"The user interface on search hasn't changed for six years. You still get the
same dull, boring ten blue links for God's sake. Can't we do any better than
that?"

No, this is the perfect UI for search. What results are found could be better
sometimes, but how they're presented is pretty close to optimal, IMO.

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p0ltergeist
smart move by ballmer. he either lets YHOO drop to $8 and then makes an offer
for $13 (after making yang do massive layoffs), or he just lets yahoo shrink
into irrelevance and then positions msn to (try) to take marketshare. either
way ballmer wins.

with the google deal dead and no obvious offer from ballmer, jerry is dead in
the water

