Microsoft Bids $44.6 Billion For Yahoo 784
The news is everywhere this morning about Microsoft's $44.6B offer to buy Yahoo. The offer represents $31 a share, a 62% premium over Thursday's closing price; and Yahoo's stock price has been rising in after-hours trading. Microsoft has been making overtures to Yahoo since 2006, according to the CNet article, including a buyout offer last February that was rebuffed. Mediapost.com has some perspective on the deal from the point of view of ads and eyeballs. Such an acquisition, which would be Microsoft's largest by far — it bought Aquantive last year for $6 billion — would need approval by US and EU authorities. A European Commission spokesman declined to comment.
Implications for open source (Score:5, Interesting)
so.... (Score:2, Interesting)
I can see how this will work (and takes fight to google a bit more). However there will be a load of sites now that will overlap (e.g. Hotmail & Yahoo Mail)... quesiton is, will this mean a lot of consolidation or will they stay diverse and unique???
Oh, no, Mr. Bill! Leave my Yahoo! Alone!! (Score:3, Interesting)
The only thing that matters: EMAIL (Score:5, Interesting)
Interesting that - imagine building a business using online apps, only to have your supplier go under and get bought out in some botched effort, and then lose history...
I think there are a number of serious implications in this MS/Yahoo deal. The monopoly aspect is actually the least problematic: the loss of history is a greater problem.
But then, maybe the Feds under a Democratic Admin will say "nuh uh!" and kill the deal...
RS
Re:Very odd (Score:5, Interesting)
Bad move that will be nixed by regulators anyway (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:So This Means... (Score:3, Interesting)
Theoretically Microsoft could buy up anything good about the internet so we can all shut our computers down and settle in w/a trip to the library and a good book.
Re:Implications for open source (Score:5, Interesting)
I contacted the FTC to complain (Score:5, Interesting)
I know about the other solutions, but none are as feature complete IMHO as Zimbra. Two words: Blackberry integration.
Re:Very odd (Score:3, Interesting)
Microsoft is smart. They did not get where they are by being idiots. If they think Yahoo is worth $46B to them, I'm inclined to believe it. On the other hand, it might be that Google has been mulling an investment in Yahoo and Mr Softy just wanted to prevent that scary thing from happening.
It makes me sad that YHOO might cease to exist. To me, Yahoo represents the internet revolution. For ten years I have been using Yahoo's email, stock quotes, news, weather, sports, shopping, maps, and directories on a daily basis. I have bought and sold Yahoo stock when it was in the $300's and more recently when it was in the teens. I used to post on Yahoo's news comment boards before they shut them down, mainly to counter the many idiots I saw there. To me, Yahoo has always been a safe port in a storm.
When Microsoft takes over Yahoo, assuming the antitrust authorities let this happen (doubtful, actually), it will be a sad day for the internet. The old guard will have won out over the pure internet players. It will be Google against MS at that point. I guess I'll just spend even more time on Google from then on.
Re:Farewell Yahoo (Score:3, Interesting)
All my bookmarks are in del.icio.us [wikipedia.org] :-(
All my images are in Flickr [wikipedia.org] :-(
If I knew they were going to hand over all my data to Microsoft I wouldn't have signed up.
*sigh* time to start looking for alternative services.
Love vs. Hate (Score:5, Interesting)
Yahoo News itself is reporting this as a hostile takeover [yahoo.com], but seemingly with Microsoft willing to pay such a large premium, one that will be hard to resist. It's interesting that Microsoft is willing to use up almost all of it's cash reserves for this takeover, largely sacrificing it's flexibility to make strategic investments in the future. But from the perspective of Yahoo! users the more important question is whether a MS takeover will turn Yahoo! into tepid porridge? And will the long, slow decline of Microsoft now drag Yahoo! down too?
Fate of Flickr? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Implications for open source (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:nice to see (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:nice to see (Score:5, Interesting)
The amount of Internet penetration here is very very less, apart from Hyderabad. Google is so popular that it is part of our songs [Like Bollywood, which are Hindi films, we have our own industry of sorts with Telugu films and yes they all have songs].
When a movie song has Google in it, it is because the average movie-goer knows what it is.
Google has become a part of our language. The same with some other regional languages include the National language Hindi.
Re:Going to Hotmail Hell (Score:4, Interesting)
Perhaps (Score:4, Interesting)
I can see this in a two prong attack to get to Google.
First, by buying Yahoo, they get access to all of Yahoo's users which will be migrated over to MSN. This will give MS the strength to talk to Madison Ave and have the technology that is good enough.
Second, MS will then offer cut rate advertisement (or perhaps a new click model which is deeply discounted), which will force Google to react or lose market share.
Remember that Google is primarily a advertisement firm with some killer search technology, not a technology firm that also does ads- so to use a Ballmer quote from the past, to kill a company, you "cut out the air supply". Google's air is adverts.
Finally, this will cut into Yahoo's open source projects; just a little benefit for MS, but still, it's there.
To a monopolist, $40b is cheep money for killing 2 birds with one stone.
Now, will it happen?
That's another question.
Forget Search ...It's Services & Advertising (Score:3, Interesting)
Winners: Microsoft, Y!shareholders.
Losers: Yahoo!, Y!users, the internet, open source, competition.
Re:Is this innovation? (Score:2, Interesting)
This is bad on many levels (Score:5, Interesting)
That makes the game Microsoft vs Google.
Now, can Microsoft really take on Yahoo without destroying it? Will it be like when Compaq bought DEC? Or will it work? Yahoo is all FreeBSD, the engineers there HATE and laugh at Microsoft and its products. I know for a fact that moral will sink and people will leave Yahoo.
There is something different going on here. FAST, Fast Search and Transfer, previous owners of www.alltheweb.com, a search engine competitor to google in the late 1990s split from its search engine business which it sold to overture, which was bought by Yahoo. Microsoft is currently in the process of buying FAST, and next on the agenda is Yahoo. Bringing back together, the two halves of the old company.
It may be a coincidence, but it is curious. Why would Microsoft buy technology that it arguably already has or could build cheaper? What is it they are out to get? Are there patents or other "intellectual property" owned collectively by the two parts of FAST that they can use to sue Google?
Also, Yahoo is a HUGE open source user/contributor. A purchase by Microsoft will almost certainly reduce the number and amount of contribution to the open source environment.
Lastlt, isn't this *exactly* what the Sherman act was designed to prevent?
Re:Zimbra - Did they screw themselves (Score:2, Interesting)
The Zimbra faux open source license (ZPL) now the (YPL) [zimbra.com] a perversion of the Apache license prohibits the removal of their logo from the source in the form of an "Attribution Clause" This logo is trademarked. Yahoo now owns the trademarks and now perhaps Microsoft will on a successful purchase of Yahoo. This begs the question. Can Zimbra be forked? I think the answer is no. Because you cannot remove the logo as the license states and MS will presumably now own the trademarks and all rights to that code. If this is the case then it would seem as if the Zimbra people are out on their ears. without their code or trademarks.
True open source aka free software preserves the right to fork. With badgeware you are prohibited from removing the trademarks and logos from the source. Hence you cannot fork it. This is BAD. If they remove the logo requirement from their license and leave the attribution requirement then that would be no problem because customers could still fork and maintain attribution to the originators which is what the GPL allows anyway. Zimbra chose to screw the customer by using an true open source license (Apache License) and corrupting it by forcing you not to remove the trademarked logo. So as to prevent forking and therefore prevent free market competition that open source fosters. This is why true OPEN source software like Debian and Linux and any GPL sw cannot be bought away from freedom and the free market.
As one that has deployed it in a few sites this is really disturbing to me. A tough lesson to learn and this will be the last time I get bitten by faux open source licenses.Knee Jerk Reaction (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Very odd (Score:3, Interesting)
Is this kind of merger a good argument for releasing server side software under the GNU [gnu.org] Affero GPL [wikipedia.org] ? If these services were using software licensed under something like the GNU Affero GPL, then a company like Microsoft wouldn't be able to go near them.
I know the argument against this form of license is that large players like IBM, Sun and Google would not want to use them, so the projects would find it difficult to get sponsorship. But both Flickr and del.icio.us started as small start-up teams with a cool idea, and became valuable because of the user base they attracted. When they started out they weren't looking to be bought out by a large company, they just wanted to try out their idea and share it with their friends.
If the next cool idea is started by a team who used tools licensed under the GNU Affero GPL, what happens when it gets discovered and attracts a huge user base ? It would be interesting to see which of the big players would be prepared to become involved. A potentially disruptive technology. [wikipedia.org]
Re:Love vs. Hate (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:flickr (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm not looking for another heavy weight image handling application. Got quite a few of those already, and all available GPL or similar. Flickr was cool because they published their webservice API, allowing others to create simple image uploaders or plugins for existing applications.
But for me, Flickr's main attraction was the ability to share images using a Creative Commons [creativecommons.org] license. It means I can use other peoples images as resources in my websites, which in turn encourages me to share some of my images with the community. I haven't see an alternative that promotes Creative Commons in the same way that Flickr does.
I don't use Flickr to show off my images in a web album, I use it to share (attribution, non-commercial) my images with others who have shared their images with the community.
I'm not sure if Microsoft would understand that.
Re:Very odd (Score:3, Interesting)
Microsoft, OTOH, started as a software company. Their business model, like that of any other software company, relies on getting people to use that software. Not entirely unlike the services market. What they've attempted to do is use their services as a loss leader to bring in money from their SOFTWARE arm, rather than a different section of their services. In other words, they try to get the end users who are looking for free services to buy their software, which naturally goes against the whole 'free' thing.
Question - Why is EU approval needed? (Score:3, Interesting)
Why do EU regulators get any say over whether Microsoft can purchase Yahoo? Does, say, Canada also have the right to block Microsoft from purchasing Yahoo? Could the US block BMW from purchasing Daimler?
This is based on the assumption that Microsoft and Yahoo are both incorporated in the United States.
Note: I am not a U.S. person, nor do I have a US-rocks, EU-sucks attitude.
Re:Love vs. Hate (Score:3, Interesting)
Not much. I just avoid it where I can, that's all. Just like I don't like vanilla, so I tend to avoid vanilla foods & French vanilla coffee, etc. Neither has really affected me that much, and I definitely do what I want to do. In fact I avoid them both because that's exactly what I want to do.
How will this affect GOOG stock? (Score:2, Interesting)
As of hign noon EST it's down about 8.5%
WHY stick with Flickr? (Score:2, Interesting)
Guess it's time to go some other place to host my photos...
It was time to go some place other than flickr when they instituted the 200 photo limit on free accounts. They also don't advertise that limit up front- you find out about it only after you've got an investment in using their site.
Seth
Implications of 2008 US Presidential Race (Score:3, Interesting)
I expect something similar to happen here. Right now, the Department of Justice is unlikely to enforce antitrust law too strictly, and so at this point in time I don't expect the DoJ would have a problem with this acquisition. However, if Clinton or Obama wins the presdiency 10 months from now and this acquisition still isn't completed, don't be surprised if the DoJ starts looking at this much more closely and blocks the acquisition.
Re:Very odd (Score:3, Interesting)
I know MS is trying to buy Yahoo to compete with Google, but, I'm wondering...can they?
I mean, back in the day, I never used Yahoo to search...it was horrible compared with what was back in the day..I'd try AltaVista or what have you..but, Yahoo just didn't see to be a real 'search engine'. And today with Google present, I don't know anyone that uses anything BUT google to search.
Sure I have an old yahoo email acct...that I really only use to register for things online, and let it get spammed, but, aside from some email, who the hell uses Yahoo much for searching?
How would this acquisition help MS exactly?
The FreeBSD / MySQL migration will be fun... (Score:4, Interesting)
I remember how many goes it took to get hotmail off of FreeBSD, and I expect Yahoo! to be even harder.
Re:Very odd (Score:3, Interesting)
And this will certainly pass regulation, since even "do no evil" megacorporations like Google need competition from "do most evil" megacorporations like Microsoft.
Re:Pot, kettle, very black. Or not. (Score:3, Interesting)
Look, you have a few choices:
- You can type Microsoft like a normal non-cretin
- You can type the stock-ticker abbreviation, MSFT
- You can type the accepted acronym, MS
All three of those options work. M$ isn't any of themNo. "M$" is a perfectly cromulent disambiguation. Otherwise, we would have trouble distinguishing between
MS==Metric System
MS==Multiple Sclerosis
MS==Mississippi (the state)
MS==Manuscript
MS==Master of Science
And the list goes on and on...
But in contemporary global society, there is only one M$.
Re:Very odd (Score:3, Interesting)
They may have *been* smart, but currently they're showing little sign of that. The marketing for Vista is non-existent and what little there has been has clearly failed to counter the perception of a buggy mass of pain and UAC pop-ups. The Zune is another case in point (squirting? seriously?), and the XB360's red ring of death is almost impossible to spin out of. Yes, all three products are pretty nice in their own right and all are perfectly usable, but the Microsoft marketing team seem either to be missing in action these days.
Contrast to Apple who really are fantastically good at marketing. Look at the hype around the iPhone compared to Windows-based phones. Microsoft managed to get Ballmer on TV to basically lie about the iPhone and that was the best they could do to counter Apple's hype. On a purely marketing level, Microsoft failed utterly to dent the bubble of their competitor's hype. Look at the perception of Apple products versus the perception of Microsoft products. Hell, look at the perception of open source products like Firefox, Linux and Apache compared to their Microsoft counterparts.
I reckon the Microsoft marketing team is dead. What skill they had has long since left and now they're down to interns and a couple of janitors.