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Yahoo!/Microsoft Execs Meet For Round Two

Posted by Zonk on Sun Mar 16, 2008 02:21 PM
from the ready-steady-fight dept.
Microsoft Businesses The Internet Yahoo!
psychosmyth writes "Microsoft's deal to Yahoo! is apparently back on the table. Yahoo execs met again with Microsoft early this past week to re-discuss the deal that fell through earlier. 'The gathering, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, gave Microsoft its first chance to sell Yahoo on the rationale for the proposed marriage since the software maker unveiled its plans six weeks ago. Since then, Yang has been exploring different ways to ward off Microsoft. The alternatives have included possible alliances with Internet search and advertising leader Google Inc., News Corp.'s MySpace.com and Time Warner Inc.'s AOL.' Microsoft is apparently still keeping all of its options open; a hostile take-over is not out of the question."
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story

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[+] Yahoo Sued for Spurning Microsoft 284 comments
tuxgeek writes "In the continuing saga of Yahoo resisting a Microsoft buy out, Yahoo is now being sued by its shareholders. 'Two Detroit pension funds have sued Yahoo Inc. and its board of directors, saying they breached their duties to shareholders in trying to thwart a takeover by Microsoft Corp. The lawsuit was filed in Delaware Chancery Court on Thursday by lawyers representing Detroit's police and fire retirement system and general retirement system, as well as 'all other similarly situated public shareholders.'"
[+] Tellme Founder Tells Yahoo Not to Worry Over Microsoft Takeover 117 comments
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."
Submission: Yahoo-Microsoft Round Two by psychosmyth (1222402)
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  • A fond farewell... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by milsoRgen (1016505) on Sunday March 16 2008, @02:25PM (#22767018) Homepage
    Funny thing is I've been using Yahoo! much more since this all started but it's just the beginning of the end for old Yahoo!. It is destined to slink back into the vast dark recesses of the tubes much like Excite, Lycos, Hotbot, Web Crawler, etc., etc.. All have before it. I certainly think Microsoft will help see to that in a much quicker fashion than Yahoo! could of done on it's own.

    • Re:A fond farewell... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by rucs_hack (784150) on Sunday March 16 2008, @02:48PM (#22767166)
      Maybe, but Yahoo isn't just a search engine, is it..

      I don't think it's likely that yahoo will disappear, after all, it has a lot of customers. I don't think this will cure microsofts internet woes. They dropped that ball a long time ago, and yahoo have shown that they are no google. Buying them won't change much for either company.

      Whatever happens, a lot of shareholders will become richer.

      • Re:A fond farewell... (Score:4, Interesting)

        by vaderhelmet (591186) <<moc.liamg> <ta> <temlehredavhtrad>> on Sunday March 16 2008, @02:52PM (#22767192)
        I think most ./ers would be in the same pessimistic boat on this one. You're right, shareholders of both companies are likely to win no matter how this pans out. One thing to think about though is how will employees and customers (users) be affected? My money is going on "adversely".

      • Re:A fond farewell... (Score:5, Interesting)

        by milsoRgen (1016505) on Sunday March 16 2008, @03:01PM (#22767244) Homepage

        Maybe, but Yahoo isn't just a search engine, is it..
        I guess your correct in that statement, but I tend to think of it as it was when I first started [archive.org] using it. Wasn't much more than a search engine with a directory attached back then, but now they have too much going on on their front page. Sure search.yahoo.com is good, but I am under the perception their priorities lie elsewhere...

        I don't think it's likely that yahoo will disappear, after all, it has a lot of customers.
        I don't think it will disappear either but I do think it will cease to be of any improtance rather quickly, only floated by whatever scheme Microsoft devises to get Windows users there. Default start pages and what have you, it wouldn't have to be that way, but I just don't see a world where Microsoft owns something like Yahoo, or Flickr and doesn't rebrand it and attempt a half assed integration into it's existing products.

        • Re:A fond farewell... (Score:4, Insightful)

          by eebra82 (907996) on Sunday March 16 2008, @03:51PM (#22767546) Homepage

          Sure search.yahoo.com is good, but I am under the perception their priorities lie elsewhere...
          Their priorities are elsewhere. I can't say that Google is perfect in its results, but Yahoo has a big problem with multi word searches. The results on large search terms are generally good, but if you go for a smaller phrase, you get far more nonsense than Google's results. Even worse, if you go for smaller phrases with at least two words, you get even worse results. Maybe the average Yahoo user doesn't care about it, but check out SEO forums and you'll see how aggravated people are over this.
        • I might be reaching a bit but the "jumping happy yahoo logo guy" looks a bit like a rotated Yellow Sign. Perhaps Microsoft isn't the only IT company backed by a Great Old One.

          http://www.miskatonic.net/pickman/mythos/prop/ysig1.jpg [miskatonic.net]
              • Well,I'm switching to communitymail.net.They have 100mb mail limit(which is fine for me),plenty of features,and have a nice webmail(with folders!).Now I just need to copy my yahoo contacts over before MSFT takes over.I just don't trust them not to go Symantec on Yahoo mail.But as always my 02c,YMMV.
      • Maybe, but Yahoo isn't just a search engine, is it..

        No, its also a huge, gigantic joke.

        One of New Zealands 'largest' ISPs (Xtra) dropped their in-house email system some time ago and converted it all to Yahoo mail.

        Since then there have been ongoing problems sending email to Xtra users.

        Yahoo mails smtp server appears to be running qmail.

        *rimshot*

        roflmao Yahoo, qmail, Xtra!

  • The empire strikes back (Score:3, Funny)

    by ViralInfection (1221188) on Sunday March 16 2008, @02:25PM (#22767026)
    Oh not again...

  • Isn't it about time... (Score:5, Funny)

    by The Ancients (626689) on Sunday March 16 2008, @02:26PM (#22767028) Homepage

    ...Balmer threw his toys (i.e. chair) out of the cot?

    I'd wear full motocross protective gear if I was Yang.

    • Re:Isn't it about time... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by flyingsquid (813711) on Sunday March 16 2008, @02:59PM (#22767228)
      The gathering, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, gave Microsoft its first chance to sell Yahoo on the rationale for the proposed marriage since the software maker unveiled its plans six weeks ago. Since then, Yang has been exploring different ways to ward off Microsoft. The alternatives have included possible alliances with Internet search and advertising leader Google Inc.

      When they use the words "proposed marriage" to describe a Yahoo/Microsoft merger, it reminds me of an old Western melodrama. You know: the villain has managed to buy the local bank, so now he owns the mortgage on the girl's farm, and she has to marry him, or watch him forclose on her beloved farm and turn her out into the cold...

      "Things are looking dire for Miss Yahoo! Will she be forced to offer her hand in marriage to the dastardly Cornelius Microsoft, to save her farm and herself? The very thought is too much for her weak constitution, and her stock price swoons! Cornelius, in the bank office, clutches the mortgage in his bony fingers, then twists his long, black moustache. He throws a chair across the office, laughing in triumph. But who is that figure silhouetted against the horizon? That handsome, broad-shouldered man wearing a white hat and riding a white stallion? The reflected sun shines from the gleaming sheriff's badge on his chest, which reads, 'Don't be evil'. But can he possibly come soon enough to save the fair Miss Yahoo? Next week, the exciting finale!"

      Of course, it's a serial. So the next episode ends in a cliffhanger, with Microsoft tying Yahoo to the train tracks as Google races to get there in time...

      • The modern reality of Yahoo forcing M$ into a hostile takeover is simply that M$ is forced to up it offer and shift it to a cash only. So The longer Yahoo can stretch it out and the more M$ is forced to commit and place it's prestige upon success, the better the return for Yahoo shareholders.

        As for M$'s competitors the longer it takes and the more money M$ blows on the deal the batter off they are and then there is of course the added benefit that all those customers of Yahoo who use them in preference to

    • ...Balmer threw his toys (i.e. chair) out of the cot?
      Tziiiinnnng! Oh no! Not the comfy chair!

  • if it happens (Score:5, Interesting)

    by FudRucker (866063) on Sunday March 16 2008, @02:39PM (#22767120)
    i hope this costs microsoft a freight train full of money, so much that it hurts microsoft and weakens them to the point that they can not buy anything else for a long long time...

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by westlake (615356)
      i hope this costs microsoft a freight train full of money, so much that it hurts microsoft and weakens them to the point that they can not buy anything else for a long long time...

      Microsoft's second quarter profits were $4.71 billion dollars. The company is debt free with $20 billion in liquid reserves. A freight train full of money? "Take a ride on the Reading." Microsoft owns the railroad.

  • Illiad sez... (Score:3, Funny)

    by TheSHAD0W (258774) on Sunday March 16 2008, @02:53PM (#22767198) Homepage
    "Teh caek is a lie!" [userfriendly.org]
  • Yahoo to Microsoft: "Put a one and two zeros in front of that or we walk!"

  • I already deactivated my Flickr account. MS has enough of my money.
    • WTF? Why do that before a takeover?

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by KwKSilver (857599)
        MS has made it plain that this is an offer that Yahoo! can't refuse. As soon as I heard about MS's intent to force it, I closed my Yahoo! e-mail acct. I'd only opened it a day or two before MS made this offer, so there was nothing important there, anyway. Since MS is going to force this on Yahoo! it is only a matter of time. Plus, I'd expect that the first order of business after a takeover would be to make using Yahoo's services intolerable for BSD and Linux users, which I am. Why wait?

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by tsa (15680)
        Because I had a Pro account that was expiring and I thought I'd wait until the uncertainty about the takeover is over before paying again. ;)
      • If he waits until afterwards, Microsoft may already have access to his personal information.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Colin Smith (2679)

      I already deactivated my Flickr account. MS has enough of my money.
      Really? How much were they charging you?

       
    • If Messysoft acquires Yahoo I'll cancel ALL of our Yahoo services. More and more I wish Microsoft would, just like dog p00p, dry up and blow away.

  • The REAL reason (Score:4, Funny)

    by overshoot (39700) on Sunday March 16 2008, @03:39PM (#22767464)
    Steve wants the bang: Micro!Soft!
    • I think the new should be called "Microhoo!". I kind of suspect that's what people call Ballmer behind his back (they'd do it in front of him but don't want a chair thrown at them).

  • Forget Yahoo, Microsoft is screwing up! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by erroneus (253617) on Sunday March 16 2008, @04:02PM (#22767600) Homepage
    There is very little that Microsoft has bought that didn't turn to crap and die. (Yes, I acknowledge there are some things that have done rather well, but they were already doing well before Microsoft got them and even then somehow the majority of those surviving have gotten a bit worse.)

    Yahoo will always be second or third place to Google. Microsoft made their attempt with MSN. It's crap and never caught on. Yahoo and all of its things, while many are still vibrant, are generally too spammy to be useful any longer. (I can't tell you how many groups I had joined only to become flooded with unending spam even after leaving those groups!)

    I simply cannot imagine with Microsoft's history of misunderstanding the internet (primarily they somehow don't get that they can't control or guide the internet in any successful way) and Yahoo's failure to maintain its dominance or communities that they can somehow put something together that will compete with Google.

    Microsoft is just wasting money.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by dhavleak (912889)

      There is very little that Microsoft has bought that didn't turn to crap and die. (Yes, I acknowledge there are some things that have done rather well, but they were already doing well before Microsoft got them and even then somehow the majority of those surviving have gotten a bit worse.)

      • Bungie Studios (even happily spun off as a healthy independant game studio now)
      • Visio Corp. (I assume you're familiar with Visio?)
      • Groove Networks (their CEO is now the Cheif Technology Architect at MS - Ray Ozzie himself
      • Ensemble Studios (Age of Empires, and soon, Halo Wars)
      • Rare Inc. (Perfect Dark Zero)

      Note that many acquisitions probably get integrated and the products renamed for branding purposes (for example, Viridian which ends up being MS's Virtualization solution). Just because they disappeare

        • MS needs Yahoo's users and its brands to be able to at least get a foot in the door.

          If MS buys Yahoo I'm moving to Google. I wonder how many Yahoo users would jump ship as well.

          Most web users aren't geeks like us - they won't even be aware that MS acquired Yahoo. For those that are, most will not care (one way or the other) unless they are actually impacted in some way (positive or negative). What remains is a small percentage of people like us that know and care (at least enough to have this conversation) but even among us there isn't concensus on defection.

        • For the most part I agree, but using Rare as an example of a company that succeeded after Microsoft purchased it? Thats one heck of a joke...
          Possibly.. I just mentioned some stuff of the top of my head..

  • Migration headache (Score:3, Interesting)

    by rice_burners_suck (243660) on Sunday March 16 2008, @05:13PM (#22767974)
    I have this feeling that one of the terms of this deal will require Yahoo! to dump all its FreeBSD-based technology and migrate their entire system to Microsoft's newest Windows Server. This deal will undoubtedly create the same sort of chaos that ensued when Microsoft switched Hotmail's systems in the same manner, since there is this rule that goes something like, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Making such a large-scale migration is sure to create nothing but chaos until after completed and after all the bugs have been ironed out, and the only benefit is that Microsoft can later brag about how Yahoo!'s entire system runs on Windows. There can be no other benefit since the system evidently works fine under FreeBSD.

    • Actually, they have already stated in their press releases that initial integration will only be for things that make sense (plugging in MS's ad platform and search). This is painless and completely transparent to the end user. Later integration will be done on a case-by-case basis where it makes sense. Areas where future scalability and technologies are important will definitely be migrated to windows server, but not migrated for its own sake. I'm obviously paraphrasing, but they've repeated stuff to this

      • The assertions that MS make are assertions only - I'd treat them with the caution they deserve rather than the solid-gold statements you seem to think they are - and I don't care how often they repeat things in public. Repeating them won't make them come true. The Hotmail case is a tried and tested example of their work.

        So, just how much are MS paying you to catch flak on /. today?

        • ...and I don't care how often they repeat things in public...

          Neither do I. Slashdot posts, repeating ad-infinum that MS will rip out BSD and replace it with Windows Server without reason, doesn't make that prediction true either.

          So, let's assume the following:
          - press releases aren't worth much, for predicting what MS will do
          - /. posts aren't worth much, for predicting what MS will do
          - a little logical analysis however, is worth something

          Now with these assumptions, if MS invests 44B in something, logic says they will want that investment to c

  • MS to Yahoo!: "All we want to do is eat your brains, we're not trying to be unreasonable and eat your eyes..." :P

  • Warding off Microsoft (Score:3, Interesting)

    by The Famous Brett Wat (12688) on Sunday March 16 2008, @08:26PM (#22769302) Homepage Journal

    Yang has been exploring different ways to ward off Microsoft.

    TFA doesn't say whether he's tried such approaches as garlic, holy water, etc. What is the appropriate ward against Microsoft, anyhow? Come to think of it, I suspect it might be the GPL: their attitude towards GPL'd software is a lot like a vampire's reaction to a cross. So if Yahoo really wants to ward off Microsoft, they should spin off some of their software into a GPL project run by a separate non-profit entity, something like the Mozilla Foundation [mozilla.org]. Microsoft will recoil in horror. (Not that Yahoo has any software the rest of us would care to see, so far as I'm aware -- but that's beside the point.)

    • Actually, for web app developers using AJAX and DOM scripting, the YUI Widgets [yahoo.com] are a great resource and are all under a BSD license. Yahoo also owns Zimbra, an open source (not GPL) mail and groupware server that has made some inroads on the MS Exchange hegemony.

  • Save Flickr! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Fishbulb (32296) on Monday March 17 2008, @12:44AM (#22770548)
    Please GOD, if anyone at Yahoo! is reading this:

    SELL OFF FLICKR FIRST!

    It's one of the few sites I kinda like.

  • It seems to me that essentially Microsoft is trying to buy their way out of what is a fundamental problem with their corporate culture. The *reason* their products are crap is they don't understand how to inspire their troops to excellence and resort to browbeating them instead. Buying out Yahoo isn't going to fix that, it'll just drag Yahoo down to their level.

    • That won't work. People will just deinstall the plugin and keep using FF.
    • first of all who uses foxytunes, I don't think i've ever see a firefox install with it in use.

      secondly if MS wanted to cripple firefox they could do so far more easilly through say windows update.

      • Re:What would MS do with FoxyTunes? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by koh (124962) on Sunday March 16 2008, @05:38PM (#22768152) Journal

        secondly if MS wanted to cripple firefox they could do so far more easilly through say windows update.
        Granted, GP was quite over the top, but his point still stands. Indeed, let's assume for a while that (somewhere in another dimension), MS does cripple Firefox through FoxyTunes using Windows Update. That situation leads to very different outcomes before and after an eventual MS/Y! merger:

        Before the merger:

        Joe R. Hacker of the Many Eyes: Firefox is crippled under Vista, also under XP with mandatory update KB66642 installed.
        Fred Quux of the Firefox Bug Dispatchers: Does this occur in safe mode? If it does not, can you pinpoint the add-on that is causing the crippling?
        JRH: Thanks. The crippling is in FoxyTunes.
        FQ: I really can't do anything about that. You have to get the FoxyTunes maintainers to fix it.
        JRH: That's okay, it's Yahoo!. I'll file a bug.
        Y!: After some debugging, it looks like both Vista and KB66642 have an API bug that leads to a buffer overflow in our extension. We're fixing this and making some fuss about it with MS, because it may break some other extension and we would hate that.

        After the merger:

        JRH: Firefox is crippled under Vista, also under XP with mandatory update KB66642 installed.
        FQ: Does this occur in safe mode? If it does not, can you pinpoint the add-on that is causing the crippling?
        JRH: Thanks. The crippling is in FoxyTunes.
        FQ: I really can't do anything about that. You have to get the FoxyTunes maintainers to fix it.
        JRH: That's okay, it's Microsoft. I'll file a... Oh, wait...

        <GP_level_paranoia>
        MS: We're aware of this problem but we can't fix it. It is due to a flaw in the Firefox platform.
        JRH: Are you kidding me? FoxyTunes worked fine when Yahoo! was making it!
        MS: Maybe. However, the latest release of FoxyTunes has to interface with the TPM and DRM/DBD layers of XP and Vista, and unfortunately it triggers a buffer overflow in the pitiful Firefox add-on APIs. We can't fix it.
        JRH: You know what? I'm having an RMS/ESR moment. Please stay in line as I reach for my katana and my Uzi.
        MS: Just for the record, ExplorerTunes under IE8 is outstanding. It has so many more features, it's pretty, and it just works!
        JRH: Screw you. I'm forking FoxyTunes.
        MS: Please do that. Our patent lawyers are hungry.
        </GP_level_paranoia>

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