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Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation is in talks with Microsoft about joining in its contested bid for Yahoo, according to people involved in the discussions. The combination, which would join Yahoo, Microsoft’s MSN and News Corporation’s MySpace, would create a behemoth that would upend the Internet landscape.
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The talks between Microsoft and News Corporation are at a sensitive stage, people involved in the discussions said. “There’s a long way to go before anything is definite,” one person involved in the talks said.
"The Web of Our Lives."
"As The Search Engine Turns."
"The Old and The Reckless."
"One Search To Give."
Only to proof MSFT is out to create yet another monopoly, we need to say no
Oh get real. This is about being more competitive against a current monopoly.
Hey if you want a 95% G search scenario and increasing monopolist tendancies through all forms of online tracking, advertising, communication and internet access then you keep wishing for Y! to jump into bed with G.
This is about being more competitive against a current monopoly.
Which monopoly are we talking about again?
From wikipedia
1. In Economics, monopoly (also "Pure monopoly") exists when a specific individual or enterprise has sufficient control over a particular product or service to determine significantly the terms on which other individuals shall have access to it. [1] Monopolies are thus characterized by a lack of economic competition for the good or service that they provide and a lack of viable substitute goods...
2. In political discourse, the term monopoly is frequently invoked as a blanket generalization in criticism of firms with large market share or lack of what's perceived as "fair" competition.
I assume you are using the second definition and are using 'political discourse', which I assume is different to fact.
At the moment there is competition and no company can put up barriers to trade. To me 3 large companies competing are better than 2. The problem is Microsoft cannot compete so they have to buy marketshare even if that means launching the longest hostile takeover in the history of the world.
News Corp provides the content and Microsoft provides the technology needed to streamline the operation of Yahoo to reduce technical costs of operations. This will get rid of Wizards et al* at Yahoo and instead this money would be used to enhance Yahoo's content.
Wizards et al at Yahoo should start looking for jobs at Google...
[edited by: jatar_k at 3:03 am (utc) on April 11, 2008]
[edit reason] no urls thanks [/edit]
[sec.gov...]
Up to two years free pay? I am sure they will be lining up to be fired.
Time for newcomers who can deliver better search results and pages.
I say Y! rejects all bids, starts buying up some more properties of their own and compete's with GOOG, MSFT and NewsCorp.
And the winners (and losers) are:
COMPANY ............. Percent of change
=======================================
Yahoo! Inc................... +2.95%
Time Warner Inc........... +1.25%
Google Inc................... +1.05%
Microsoft Corporation..... +0.76%
News Corporation.......... -0.42%
... ok, that's just for today, but news sure drives stock prices don't it.
Instead, it was a pony with no new tricks. See [cbs5.com...]
That's why Jerry Yang replaced Terry Semel as CEO in June 2007. According to CNN, Semel let Yahoo fall further behind Google in the online advertising market. Read more at [money.cnn.com...]
Has Yang made a difference 10 months later? The US economy surely hasn't helped Yang to turn around things at Yahoo. And Yang's experience? Well...
Today probably it's better for Yahoo investors to choose the experience and stability of Microsoft and News Corp.
So sadly for some and an opportunity for others, Yahoo is today a nice catch.
Microsoft will then catch search patents and the opportunity to expand its technologies. News Corp will get a nice vehicle to deliver its contents. And Yahoo investors will then be happy!
Everyone will be happy except Google...
Today probably it's better for Yahoo investors to choose the experience and stability of Microsoft and News Corp.
If they want slow growth and no fun.
So sadly for some and an opportunity for others, Yahoo is today a nice catch.
I don't think it will "sell"... more likely Y! will get new steam from all the buzz.
Microsoft will then catch search patents and the opportunity to expand its technologies. News Corp will get a nice vehicle to deliver its contents. And Yahoo investors will then be happy!
But, if MSFT and NWS.A aquire YHOO, (at an overvalued per share rate), the only thing for a YHOO shareholder to do is sell all shares the next day, and buy GOOG stock.
If history holds any clues, MSFT lawyers will stumble through the acquired YHOO property for 12 months trying to lock down all the patents, then Gates or Balmer will "announce" the rebranded property (as what? MS-Yahoo or YahooLIVE!) --- then we can all watch as it loses ground to a non-dinosaur held start-up doing something we haven't even thought of yet.
The MSFT offer is a competition killer strategy if anything. It makes MSFT the #2 "search provider" overnight -- but Google can just chug along and not even shift gears and stay at #1.
Like any good capitalist, I'd want to see who knocks Google off the top of their "mountain view", but I don't think it's gonna be team Redmond.
The waters are too small for three big fish trying to get even fatter, they want each others lunch money now. Investors want the stocks to keep rising but the number of surfers willing to click on ads and buy stuff isn't keeping pace. Somethings giving right now imo.
But buying Yahoo isn't going to solve Microsoft's problems. Balmer and Gates have not been successful on the web -- aside from destroying Netscape (and we all know how they pulled that off).
Compare MSFT's track record with MSN and MSNBC with Murdoch's track record with Fox News and MySpace.
MSFT should spend less time trying to defeat Google and more time trying to invent something new that creates an entirely new concept or market.
aside from destroying Netscape (and we all know how they pulled that off).
Add to that how Excel killed Lotus 1,2,3 -- and how MS-Word (almost) killed WordPerfect.
MSFT's "category killer" strategy of bundling (shoddy) software with the OS or Office and putting it on the desktop (e.g.- Outlook, MS-IE, Media Player), won't work anymore.
Where the average user "had to" buy MS-Office to complete a project for work or school, they can now use Google Docs, Open Office, etc.. Giving away shoddy software to make it unprofitable for competitors to sell anything in that category only works in the unconnected world.
Search and ad serving take more than a few strategic acquisitions... A company needs to have aggressive ad sales staffing, and their crawling and indexing needs to be a better mousetrap.
MSFT should spend less time trying to defeat Google and more time trying to invent something new that creates an entirely new concept or market.
MSFT is a top-down corporation. Employees are drones that only know how to follow the leader. Microsoft hasn't "innovated" anything since MS-DOS, (they didn't even create "windows" -- that was just another idea they "borrowed").
If I were Bill Gates I'd be tired of being two steps behind. I'd take my money and invest in alternative energy start-ups, recreational space travel, or something more fun. It must be frustrating trying to be the gatekeeper on an industry that no longer needs him.
MSFT trying to be #1 in search and ad serving is almost as futile as if they had invented the telegraph and wanted to keep others from using the telephone.
Microsoft hasn't "innovated" anything since MS-DOS
Actually they bought MS-DOS. It was previously called QDOS, until Seattle Computer Products sold it to MS.
Actually they bought MS-DOS. It was previously called QDOS, until Seattle Computer Products sold it to MS.
If that's true, then the only thing I remember Bill Gates being credited with was writing Altair's BASIC interpreter and developing software called "Traf-O-Data [en.wikipedia.org]" -- which makes (ironic) sense now... how appropriate that he envisioned a way to automate counting "traffic" --- the next logical step was to figure out how to collect money every time someone passes by....
It's remarkable when you think about it. I for one can't think of any comparable case.
MS has basically NEVER created anything new.
...
I for one can't think of any comparable case.
