Rumors Flying On $20 Billion Microsoft Offer For Yahoo 112
gadgetopia is one of many who wrote to tell us about the many rumors flying around that Microsoft may be aiming another deal at Yahoo, this time for $20 billion. The story was apparently originally broken by the UK-based site Times Online, and contained lots of details about the supposed deal. Since then, Ross Levinsohn, reported to be part of the new management team, has denied there is any truth to these rumors, leading to questions about where all of this supposed information came from. Yahoo has declined to comment officially.
Sounds like pump-n-dump (Score:5, Insightful)
In this climate I don't see Microsoft buying -anything- for a $20B outlay unless it were the next Google. And Yahoo isn't.
Feds won't allow it (Score:3, Insightful)
They better get their sale concluded before next year.
Re:Sounds like pump-n-dump (Score:5, Insightful)
I agree, Yahoo's revenue streams have been dropping and their annual profit's have not been good. MS would have to have a compelling reason to buy Yahoo as the acquisition would probably not give them a competitive advantage over Google.
With all this talk of Windows in the cloud, and seeing what Microsoft have just done by adding Netflix to the Xbox 360, it appears like they are looking seriously to selling appliances/subscription services. If they could convert even a fraction of their OEM market into hosted services, it could be as lucrative as their Office and Server licensing streams.
Why? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Sounds like pump-n-dump (Score:5, Insightful)
Microsoft has money to spend and AAA corporate credit. Exxon-Mobil grade credit. Why shouldn't it be out shopping for bargains?
Re:Hostile takeover (Score:5, Insightful)
Think what you will, but the only sane one in this deal was Jerry Yang from the start. Microsoft is ruthless - and this shows just how ruthless they are.
How could you blame Microsoft on this? They offered the 44.6B and were turned down by Jerry Yang. Let me repeat that last part....Jerry Yang, the sane one, turned down the deal. His decisions resulted in a lesser valued company and now according to this article Microsoft is making another offer. How this leads to M$=EVIL I don't know.
Re:Sounds like pump-n-dump (Score:4, Insightful)
Microsoft doesnt want Yahoo to make money, they want Yahoo for the hits and content.
Re:Sounds like pump-n-dump (Score:3, Insightful)
Microsoft doesn't want Yahoo. It wants Yahoo out of the way.
Yahoo is closer to Google than you think (Score:3, Insightful)
Yahoo is one of the few companies that's positioned anywhere near a place where they could grab a share of what Google's doing.
They have some of the web's most trafficked destinations -- I think they're still #1 in traffic even with the rise of the social networking sites. Part of it's mindshare and brand recognition, part of it is the sheer variety the apps in their portal portfolio (flickr, delicious, groups...).
Microsoft right now is in a position where they are losing control of the web as a platform. Even with some huge advantages leftover from their desktop dominance, they don't seem to be able to do all that great at creating compelling destinations, and what's more, there's an increasing number of destinations that don't require any of their technology at all.
Frankly, if I were betting on which company were more likely to be relevant in 10-15 years, I'd bet on Yahoo.... assuming it survives investors who've forgotten there's such a thing as a decade, and suits and others who can't get their heads around Yahoo's assets, much less put together the engineering culture and talent the company does need to make its bid for resurgence.
Be sure that Microsoft understands this. Getting their hands on these web properties could do wonders for their efforts to shoehorn their proprietary tech back into popular usage. They may not be able to execute, but it's quite probably worth even more than a $20 billion shot.
I don't like the idea so much, because I think their product "management" of IE from 2001-2006 shows that rather than deserving any kind of trust, they're all too happy to leave their products in a state that should constitute criminal theft for sheer number of hours of productivity it stole from web developers, if they can get away with it, which, even in the current environment where their grip is looser than it used to be, they more or less can. But it's a very real possibility if MS acquires Yahoo.
Re:Sounds like pump-n-dump (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Hostile takeover (Score:5, Insightful)
Jerry Yang is the reason Yahoo is in the toilet
Uh, probably not. Over past 12 months Yahoo! is down 60%. But guess what? AMD is down 80%, the Dow is down 40%, Sun is down 85%, MSFT themselves are down 45%, even Apple is down 50%.
Shall we blame Jerry for 12 months of decline across the board?? If you correct for the market downturn, even just the Dow index, then Yahoo! has barely dipped.
(Actually the offer was made around 1 Feb, but the dips since then are about the same.)
Re:Hostile takeover (Score:3, Insightful)
Think what you will, but the only sane one in this deal was Jerry Yang from the start. Microsoft is ruthless - and this shows just how ruthless they are.
Man I agree MS is ruthless and I respect Jerry Yang but I just can't blame Microsoft here. They gave Jerry a 44 BILLION offer, and a few weeks later, the company loses almost 25 billion in value directly because of his refusal to sell.
You mention some mistakes that Yahoo made but how is all that not his fault?
Re:Go away, leave us alone (Score:3, Insightful)
" I keep remembering the desparate "I need a boot loader" email I got from his sorry ass via UUCP. I contributed one out of common grace. And in that he fucked me."
Wow, care to share that story?