Tellme Founder Tells Yahoo Not to Worry Over Microsoft Takeover

Tellme founder and previous Yahoo co-founder, Mike McCue hasn't spoken to past-partner Jerry Yang since the Microsoft takeover bid for Yahoo, but he wanted to let his friend know that being acquired by Microsoft isn't such a terrible proposition. "After being assured that Tellme would be able to retain its Silicon Valley office, identity and quirky culture, McCue negotiated an $800 million sale to Microsoft and agreed to stay on as general manager. It's a decision that he says he doesn't regret 10 months into the marriage. 'We are pretty much doing everything we were doing before - just a lot more of it,' said McCue, 40. Because of the vast differences in size, the Tellme deal obviously isn't an apples-to-apples comparison to Microsoft's proposed $40 billion acquisition of Yahoo, which contends it's worth even more money despite a two-year earnings slump."

Given Yahoo's assistance in Totalitarian China...

[sethstorm (512897)]

...it'd be employees of Microsoft in that part of the world that need fear this takeover. Of course, when you let Wall Street rule the world, human rights gets thrown out of the window and into the next county.

Re:Given Yahoo's assistance in Totalitarian China.

[Brian Gordon (987471)]

What does that have anything to do with it? And nobody give me some smart answer- I mean directly, that has nothing to do with what we think about Yahoo's decisions about China.

Re:Given Yahoo's assistance in Totalitarian China.

[by Anonymous Coward]

Oddly enough the original poster's comment had two sentences, the second of which was a general note about the effect of money. I simply wanted to point out that getting on a high horse doesn't have much effect when you're covered in shit yourself already. The US government and probably every single person on slashdot helps the Chinese government grow and maintaining it's power. We give it money, we give it economic growth, we give it technological progress and we all ignore it's continual humanitarian abuses. We argue that this is better in the long term ,we argue that we are actually helping the Chinese people and so on.

Nonetheless every large company is China has probably had one government order or another requesting information on it's workers, or on it's customers or wiretaps or whatever. The exact same thing is done in the US, the police sometimes request things from companies and companies give that information up. If your company does business in China it can either follow it's laws or not do business there, no one seems to mind the former as long as they can save some money (including likely every single slashdot poster when they buy computer parts).

Who wouldnt be?

[miffo.swe (547642)]

Getting paid $800 million i would gladly let Bill Gates rape my company anyday. Asking someone recently given that kind of money what they think is pretty useless.

Re:

[dattaway (3088)]

I'm looking forward to the day when we all work for and are citizens of Microsoft. No more worries about competition, wars, or being sued for using Linux.

Re:Who wouldnt be?

[moderatorrater (1095745)]

Getting paid $800 million i would gladly let Bill Gates rape my company anyday

Hell, for $800 million dollars, I'd let him rape me! That's a statement he can stand behind.

Re:Who wouldnt be?

[Macthorpe (960048)]

For $800 million dollars, I'd put up a pretty convincing performance.

Re:Who wouldnt be?

[DarkOx (621550)]

unless its like a settlement you get after the subsequent rape trial... You are correct though if you agree to the 800mil up front that makes you a high priced whore, not a rape victim.

Reminds me of ..

[ElektroHolunder (514550)]

"They float all down here, Richie. When you're down here with us, you'll float too!"

Re:Who wouldnt be?

[Znork (31774)]

Asking someone recently given that kind of money

It's not the money. While I'm sure the recipient of that kind of money would be hesitant to comment negatively, the keyword here is recently.

Ten months into an acquisition and a company of Microsofts size has barely noticed it's got a new appendage. They probably haven't even finished connecting internal networks or handed out ID's, never mind hooking up finance and reporting systems.

See if 'anything's changed' in five years, once functional units have been merged into the mainstay and the real estate unit wonders why they have this expensive office in silicon valley, the culture unit has been briefed in the new culture is busy holding chairthrowing contests, and 'identity' is something you put in the corporate directory and 'identity management' deals with.

Re:

[Captain Splendid (673276)]

t's a new low, even for Slashdot. Seriously.

Get over yourself. Super duper seriously.

Actually, GP makes a good point, albeit in a slightly flamebait fashion. What exactly do you expect the CEO of a company that was recently acquired by the 800 lb gorilla of the IT industry to say, other than cozy, uplifting platitudes?

Re:

[dattaway (3088)]

You must not remember the old days when people made an honest living.

Re:

[tsa (15680)]

And when was that exactly?

Tellme?

[jo42 (227475)]

Tellme is so popular I had to Google them to find out WTF they do.

Either that or I live under a rock...

Re:Tellme

[TaoPhoenix (980487)]

I dunno about popular.
But I know of them, because part of their service line is to do Directory Assistance matches which gleefully tells you they are "powered by Tellme".

Re:

[Anne Thwacks (531696)]

I was a tellme early adopter. They lied and cheated, and I went elsewhere. Ant this was before Win 3.1 AFAICR.

I still have the documents somewhere, in case I ever get round to suing them. They are in the same league as Zango, and 180 solutions.

Re:

[hab136 (30884)]

I was a tellme early adopter. They lied and cheated, and I went elsewhere. Ant this was before Win 3.1 AFAICR.

Care to elaborate?

Re:

[Anne Thwacks (531696)]

It was a very long time ago, but the essence of it was that they claimed to be a low cost ISP, with free bundled modem. When in fact the modem was a lame 2400 baud thing when I was already operating 56k, and the "internet" they offered was a walled garden, which you could easily break out of, but if you did, you were billed at a hideous rate without warning, so that I ended up with huge bills.

In short, their business model relied on deceptive practices, and overcharging. I recall endless bills for things

Give up Flickr

[tsa (15680)]

I will give up my Flickr account the moment MS takes over Yahoo. That'll teach them!

Re:

[tsa (15680)]

Yeah I guess MS will blow off the whole deal now! ;)

Re:

[tsa (15680)]

But seriously, what else can I do to make them know I don't like their deal? I just want to have as little to do with MS as possible.

The 'Borg' icon really makes sense

[giminy (94188)]

This is the first time in a long time that the borg icon for MS makes entirely too much sense...you will be assimilated, etc.

McCue has no direct connections to Yahoo

[by Anonymous Coward]

> Tellme founder and previous Yahoo co-founder, Mike McCue hasn't spoken to past-partner Jerry Yang

This is wrong. McCue has no direct connections to Yahoo in his past. He founded Paper Software which was purchased by Netscape where he stayed on as a VP. He eventually started Tellme Networks with Angus Davis in 1999. Prior to Paper I believe he was at IBM.

Biased

[Comatose51 (687974)]

I'm not saying that the guy is biased but let's just think about this for a second. Anyone who've agreed to be bought by Microsoft has already found Microsoft to be a good match. In other words, if Microsoft wasn't a good match, the deal would have never gone through and we wouldn't have this article. It's kind of like asking a bunch of BMW owners what they think of BMWs. Most of them would have positive things to say, especially the new owners (which is similar in this case). To get an accurate picture we need to ask those who turned down Microsoft why did they turn them down as well as those who accepted the offer.

To be fair, many of my coworkers are former Microsoft employees and most of them did have positive things to say about the work environment. Obviously, it wasn't the end all and be all of places since they did leave after all.

Re:Biased

[blind monkey 3 (773904)]

Isn't the he an employee of Microsoft?
Surely he would be a brave person to bite the hand that feeds him... especially such a big hand, attached to a long arm at that.

Re:

[name*censored* (884880)]

Ah yes, but Microsoft's hand has it's fingers in a lot of pies, so it would be tasty to bite. Which means that umm..

Wait, what were we talking about?

Phophecy

[adolf (21054)]

I like your comparison, and would like to use it as a source of causation!

I really like my BMW. It turns 13 (and 160k) soon. We've only been together for about three short years -- far longer than a lot of tech companies ever last, but it's a very short time in BMW years. Since the acquisition, this car has taught me much, such as:

1. How to countersteer. I thought I'd already known how to countersteer from my years of driving a Firebird, which was loose like a two-dollar whore. I've since learned that

Re:

[initialE (758110)]

Conversely, anyone that doesn't agree to be bought by Microsoft knows that if they want your technology bad enough, they will just clone it. Citrix -> Terminal Services, Netscape -> Internet Explorer and IIS, Oracle -> SQL Server. They might not succeed, but in either case you're facing competition and uncertainty just by saying no.

Re:

[DarkOx (621550)]

While I think you're point is generally correct SQL Server has little to do with Oracle. SQL Server is instread the poster child for why you never partner with M$ on a development project. M$ licensed Sybase for the core of SQL Server and the two oranization agreed to continue to share code. Now M$ went and spent all their engergy doing things very tightly coupled to Windows and therfore not useful to the cross platform Sybase product.

They then marketed SQL Server more agressively and cheaper, sucking up

Re:

[dirk (87083)]

While it's true that he may be biased, asking people who have turned down MS won't tell you anything, because they have no knowledge of what happens when MS buys you. What this guy is trying to get across (for either his own personal reasons or as an MS employee)is that a lot of the fears and FUD you hear about MS taking over a company (they will just fire everyone and keep the tech, they will totally assimilate you and change your culture, they will just buy you and bury your tech and push theirs, etc)are

Maybe, Maybe Not

[OakLEE (91103)]

While I think a good segment of Yahoo's workforce won't have to worry so much, an acquisition like this is not going to happen without dead weight being trimmed off.

Assuming the merger occurs Microsoft, regardless of its promises, will have to start integrating Yahoo into MSN or vice versa. It would make no sense to run two competing operations under one roof. Thus we can safely assume that either MSN or Yahoo's upper management are toast, unless Microsoft is completely idiotic and wants to integrate the two, which would create all sorts of loyalty and corporate culture conflicts.

After management, who gets fired next depends on what Microsoft is buying Yahoo for.

If you believe what Microsoft says, it is buying Yahoo for engineering talent, then most of the Yahoo's content departments become redundant and will be eliminated, while the engineers and IT people stay.

If you believe that Microsoft is buying Yahoo because MSN's content is shit poor, then the content people are safe. The engineers and IT people become redundant as Yahoo moves over to a Microsoft-based back end. (For those who think that's impossible, remember that Microsoft moved Hotmail from BSD to Windows 2k with relative efficiency.)

If you believe (as I do) that Microsoft is buying Yahoo for its account/user base, then every employee at Yahoo is conceivably expendable since the value in Yahoo would lie in one of its raw assets (users) and not in the organizational structure of the company itself. Buying solely for the user accounts, would obviate the need for Yahoo as an entity.

Regardless of how you view it though, Yahoo as a completely separate and intact operation under the Microsoft umbrella is impossible just because it competes on a lot of fronts with MSN, and unless Microsoft's plan involves completely dismantling its MSN unit, some consolidation of the two is going to have to occur.

Re:

[MBC1977 (978793)]

Not entirely true...AOL Messenger and ICQ come to mind, though your probably right that the userbase is the real objective.

Re:

[norbac (1113477)]

Assuming the merger occurs Microsoft, regardless of its promises, will have to start integrating Yahoo into MSN or vice versa. It would make no sense to run two competing operations under one roof.

Not really. In the end all they want is online advertising. It may make sense to adopt a single advertising platform, but keep both properties (MSN, Yahoo) separate to appeal to the broadest possible audience.

Re:

[Mark_in_Brazil (537925)]

If you believe that Microsoft is buying Yahoo because MSN's content is shit poor, then the content people are safe. The engineers and IT people become redundant as Yahoo moves over to a Microsoft-based back end. (For those who think that's impossible, remember that Microsoft moved Hotmail from BSD to Windows 2k with relative efficiency.)

I agree with the parent post in general, and even this point isn't bad, except for the "relative efficiency" part, even with the built-in "relative" disclaimer. Not only w

Mike McCue did not co-found Yahoo

[disassembled (977342)]

Mike McCue is not a co-founder of Yahoo. Prior to starting Tellme in 1999, he founded a company called Paper Software, which was subsequently bought by Netscape, but he was never directly involved with Yahoo.

The article is admittedly ambiguous about this point--it introduces Jerry Yang as a co-founder of Yahoo, and in the process, it inadvertently implies that he co-founded it with McCue.

In other news...

[imasu (1008081)]

Locutis of Borg tells Riker that "it's not so bad in here!"

Interesting aspect

[Z00L00K (682162)]

But this seems to indicate that the bid on Yahoo was far below what it should have been.

Maybe this means that the bid on Yahoo should have been $400 billion instead.

But they should also consider the fact that a company is strongly depending on it's employees, and this means that if enough employees disagrees they just leaves and the purchase will be an empty shell.

800 million....

[seifried (12921)]

For 800 million dollars I'd be willing to tell people pretty much anything about how great MSFT is.

Obligatory Futurama comparison

[blake182 (619410)]

Brain slug infected man tells non-brain slug infected man not to worry about brain slug infection.

I wouldn't be so cavalier about it

[melted (227442)]

You know, there are hundreds of hungry VPs in Redmond and they have buddies who they might not mind seeing in Tellme's general manager seat. They're a lot better connected than he is.

Oblig Simpsons quote

[RSevrinsky (10305)]

Moe: [slowly] It's not so bad, Homer. They...go in through your
                      nose and...they let you keep the piece of brain they cut out.
                      Look!
                        [holds up a jar with a piece of brain in it]
                      Ooh! Hello! Hello there! Who's that big man there? Who's
                      that?
Bart+Lisa: [droning] Join us, father.
        Marge: [droning] It's bliiiissss...
        Homer: Nooo!

- "Treehouse of Horror V"

Tell me what the hell is Tellme ...

[OneSmartFellow (716217)]

I had never heard of this $800 million company, so I immediately visited their website http://www.tellme.com/ [tellme.com].

Actually, that's a lie, after watching Flash load their site for about 30 seconds (on a 4 Meg broadband connection) I gave up.

Can someone please tell me what this Tellme thing is please.

Re:

[Macthorpe (960048)]

It took me less than 3 seconds on my 20 Meg connection, so you need to chat to your broadband provider.

Not that you were missing much, mind - the website is pretty vague. Looks like directions/locations/directory services.

Re:

[Linker3000 (626634)]

30 seconds on an 8Mbit connection got me slowly up to 35% and then I bailed out. Whetever they do, they need to fire their Web designer and/or hosting company

Re:

[msuarezalvarez (667058)]

Apparently, they are a

provider of voice services for everyday life, including nationwide directory assistance, enterprise customer service and voice-enabled mobile search.

because

[...] [they] and Microsoft share a common vision around the limitless potential of voice as a way to find information, connect with people and enhance business processes, any time and from any device.

`the limitless potential of voice as a way to find information'... whoever wrote that should be chaired.

Difference between Yahoo and MS

[Ilgaz (86384)]

(Thanks to a hotmail victim friend)

Safari 3 on OS X Leopard:

Hotmail: "This is hotmail light version, to get all hotmail features upgrade to Internet Explorer 6"
Yahoo: "Yahoo mail beta works with Safari 3 now!"

That is the difference between MS and Yahoo.

Re:I was in a MSFT acquisition

[pdusen (1146399)]

Funny how you have no identity and gave none for your company.

Re:

[Dachannien (617929)]

Funny how you have no identity and gave none for your company.

Microsoft Mindwipe 2007 (tm).

Re:

[Headcase88 (828620)]

I hate how they totally changed the interface from Microsoft Mindwipe 2003.

Re:

[by Anonymous Coward]

Thanks for this question, we are now number one result [google.com] for Microsoft Mindwipe 2007.

Yahoo!!!