BREAKING: Microsoft Proposes Yahoo! Takeover at $31 per Share (44 Billion $ Takeover)

[macjay]

It's not a hostile takeover bid unless a) the Yahoo board rejects the $31 per share offer and b) Microsoft ignores the board and goes straight to the shareholders with a proxy contest.

Neither of those things has happened yet. At this point it's just an offer to buy the company.

 

[surferfromuk]

I love Apple. I like Microsoft. IMHO a lot of credit should be given to MS. Sure they acted with a big stick and smashed competition at times, but let's face it, any company with a dominant position in the market can and should do those things.

They also have done a ton of good for the industry. The IT industry without MS would have had some other "evil empire" to hate. (perhaps even Apple itself) Nature hates a vacuum

You make some good points here but also there is a fundamental misunderstanding of the history that got us to 2007 and the point where Microsoft has 90% market share and worse a ridiculous amount of money.

that being as follows ;

1) Steve Jobs hired a guy called John Sculley. In 1985 John Sculley had Steve Jobs ousted from the company he created and Sculley then signed away the rights to the computer desktop as we know it to Microsoft. In 1985 Apple began to sink very fast and spent the next 12-14 years dying slowly under visionless leadership.

So in short Microsoft won all the market share between 1985 and 2000 becuase they had ZERO competition and they were given the tools to do so by a foolish man. During the 90's Microsoft's unethical business habits began to get some real money power and the wake they left behind them is now written history but it's not over yet..

Fortunately Steve Jobs managed to bring Apple back from the brink and so in 2005/6/7 Microsoft are for the first time in history facing real competition. Problem for Apple and the world is MS now have so much money that they can almost buy everything before they 'lose'.

Microsoft are an incredibly dangerous company with terrible ambition to take it all. They are like a spoilt child who can not share the playground with anyone - a child with BFG's!

Just take heed what your money given to Microsoft perpetuates.

Fortunately, tech is hard to do and not many people can do it - I think the biggest danger here for Apple is if Microsoft learn anything from Yahoo - perhaps Microsoft will attempt to put 'free bsd' unix under windows - since copying (then roadblocking) is their stock in trade...

 

[Unspeaked]

Let's not be bloody idiots here. As much as I love Apple's products and the company in general, the consumers (that would be us) really bug me sometimes. Their rampant fanboyism and Microsoft bashing is not only pathetic, it's misplaced.

Apple's profit last quarter: $1.58 billion
Microsoft's profit last quarter: $4.71 billion

If Microsoft is a loser, Apple must be bankrupt.

The issue here is that Apple is growing rapidly and becoming a market leader in areas that it never competed in before, some of which didn't even exist a few years ago!

That $1.58 billion figure you quote is leaps and bounds ahead of where Apple was in 2004, 2002 or - god forbid - 1998.

Microsoft, meanwhile, has grown very stagnant since the dot-com bubble burst and has not really been a leader in any category outside of their traditional software market. As someone mentioned earlier, it's the Windows and Office money that's funding things like their recent buying spree, failed products like the Zune and, in this case, a major takeover bid.

Just check out how the company's respective five year charts look and then try calling Microsoft a winner:

CHART 1

Heck, we can even throw Yahoo and Google in there and see that Microsoft is vastly underperforming since Ballmer took the helm:

CHART 2

 

[hugodrax]

Actually it might be smart. Make vista and IE7 only work with yahoo and fail to render google. That is the smart way to do it. since Microsoft is 98% of the PC market in one swoop they kill google and make yahoo #1

 

[woodsea]

This merger is good

Yahoo! is falling crumpling under Google. This will bail out the company and M$ knows it. They need to buy it now, before the name is worthless. I have a gmail and yahoo e-mail account. I search mainly in Google, but use Yahoo! for most everything else. This on a MBP.
Google is a Goliath with a small man's psyche. There was a very interesting article in Wired a couple of months ago. They want to take over the internet, and use all the personal data collected to sell and manipulate the way we do business. Now, alot of you are going to say that M$ is already doing or trying that. The only difference is every government and hacker in the world is aimed right at Bill until June when Stevie B. gets caught in the headlights.
M$ can't do anything without getting outed and quick.
Those that have stated that Apple and Google should merger should sit back and think about that idea. Apple would be the Goliath to Google's David. Google has the infrastructure to head up the VERY lucrative job of online content. They have Info Dumps everywhere around the globe and is 'stupidly' redundant. Steve will still be shilling hardware, but that is not where the big money is, just take a look at the 2nd richest man in the west. Software is where it is at. Xbox 360 makes more $ money off the games than the other 2 consoles.
We need at least a 2 party system, and without M$ teaming up with Yahoo! we were looking at Google owning the whole shooting match. Just as M$ is the baddy in OS, Google would be shown to be the baddy on the Web.

 

[lucky3killer]

Actually it might be smart. Make vista and IE7 only work with yahoo and fail to render google. That is the smart way to do it. since Microsoft is 98% of the PC market in one swoop they kill google and make yahoo #1

I doubt, 98% isn't right number, it should be under 90%-95% are PC market, not 98%

Not all windows users are using IE 7, I usually use firefox and safari on vista via bootcamp.

 

[MikeTheC]

Have we, as a society, learned nothing from the corporate mega-mergers of the past? This kind of nonsense has to stop.

I'm all for the FTC blocking this merger, post-haste. My God, how much more power does Microsoft need? They already own the planet from cradle to grave, and from the dirt to the sky. Sheesh...

 

[eric55lv]

It's actually Applegoo.

It sounds like Google squeesed the too hard and the juice inside it came out

 

[whatever]

If I worked at M$ or Yahoo right now I'd probably be bailng out of more than hotmail and/or yahoo mail. You get that feeling inside when you suspect that no one in your company is actually driving the bus. Or knows how to design a bus. Or a road. Time to go!

You hit the nail on the head.

Yahoo does not appear to have a plan. Their CEO has no business being the CEO of that company, sure he's one of the founders, but there is a point where you need to step aside (kind of what Woz did at Apple). There comes a time when your child grows up and you need to let it go....

Microsoft's problem is that they have a real communication problem internally. Different development teams are developing the same or similar things at the same time, never looking to see what's happening outside of Redmond. I feel an example of this is MS's Media PC, the sole purpose of this device is to get the PC into the living room. Meanwhile, they already have this device in the Xbox. Strip away the gaming aspect of the Xbox and we have a device much like Apple TV at a similar price point, but no one at MS sees this. Meanwhile MS will sink billions into a better media PC.

I know peoples biggest fear is that MS will merge Yahoo into MS. Well, I think the biggest problem at MS is that don't do this and then end up having multiple develop and marketing teams competing against one another.

And having Steve Ballmer as the face of your company doesn't help. He may be a great guy, I've never met him, but he comes across as an ******. His "you're either with us or against us" attitude doesn't help.

 

[antdgar]

Microsoft is a very good company. They are doing better than Apple.

Try to cut down on the nonsense in this topic ^^

 

[rockosmodurnlif]

I prefer Yahoo!'s search, I find it gets me what I want faster than Google. I also use Yahoo!'s email but that just because I've been using it since before Google. Though the new version does more for me than it used to. I do have a GMail account though. I prefer Google Maps, it's just easier to use and gives me damn better directions.

I will say Google serves up better ads next to its search results. I've actually clicked on Google's ads, can't say i've done the same for Yahoo!'s. So I guess I'm part of the problem with why Yahoo! isn't making money.

I just wonder how much change will happen if the two merge. I haven't used any MSN stuff apart from old hotmail and I hated that. The MSN search is almost unusable. And AOL.com's frontpage is more appealing than MSN's.

Oh well. This is sure to be an exciting ride.

 

[GfPQqmcRKUvP]

The issue here is that Apple is growing rapidly and becoming a market leader in areas that it never competed in before, some of which didn't even exist a few years ago!

The point of business is to make money, right? Well Microsoft's profits makes Apple's profits look pathetic. Add that to the fact that Microsoft is growing more rapidly as Apple. Do you people understand that? Microsoft is not the stagnant market laggard like you all were brainwashed to believe once you joined the cult of mac. Their profits rose 79% this quarter. That is more than Apple. Apple's profits rose 50%. Microsoft is much larger, they are growing faster, it is ridiculous how good of a company Microsoft really is.

That $1.58 billion figure you quote is leaps and bounds ahead of where Apple was in 2004, 2002 or - god forbid - 1998.

Yes, it is.

Microsoft, meanwhile, has grown very stagnant since the dot-com bubble burst and has not really been a leader in any category outside of their traditional software market. As someone mentioned earlier, it's the Windows and Office money that's funding things like their recent buying spree, failed products like the Zune and, in this case, a major takeover bid.

Stagnant? They rake in 3 times more profit than Apple and are growing faster.

Just check out how the company's respective five year charts look and then try calling Microsoft a winner:

CHART 1

Heck, we can even throw Yahoo and Google in there and see that Microsoft is vastly underperforming since Ballmer took the helm:

CHART 2

Are you seriously trying to argue that Microsoft is somehow a loser and Apple and Google are somehow winners because of STOCK charts?!

The Zune a failure? Far from it. They knew they were going to lose money for the first 5 years, but it's providing great competition for Apple which now has a renewed obligation to innovate and create a better product.

 

[ebouwman]

I just looked at yahoo stock on my iPod

up 47.97% hahahah
Good time to own yhoo
I wish i did

 

[whatever]

I just looked at yahoo stock on my iPod

up 47.97% hahahah
Good time to own yhoo
I wish i did

Yes and no.

If you sell it now, yes. If you make a deal with Microsoft (however they will not offer more than they did on Thursday), yes. But if the Microsoft deal does not go through, expect it to crash.

The only reason that stock is going up is because of MS, which is also driving Google stock down.

 

[Syrus28]

You hit the nail on the head.

Yahoo does not appear to have a plan. Their CEO has no business being the CEO of that company, sure he's one of the founders, but there is a point where you need to step aside (kind of what Woz did at Apple). There comes a time when your child grows up and you need to let it go....

True, True. But that's exactly what Microsoft is cashing on. They know the stockholders won't turn it down.

Microsoft's problem is that they have a real communication problem internally. Different development teams are developing the same or similar things at the same time, never looking to see what's happening outside of Redmond. I feel an example of this is MS's Media PC, the sole purpose of this device is to get the PC into the living room. Meanwhile, they already have this device in the Xbox. Strip away the gaming aspect of the Xbox and we have a device much like Apple TV at a similar price point, but no one at MS sees this. Meanwhile MS will sink billions into a better media PC.

I totally get what your saying here. But you have to understand Microsoft is ALOT bigger than Apple. And also this example isn't too good. Why would Microsoft want to change to compete against Apple TV? If you haven't noticed, it has not done very well to penetrate the living room. However, there are 17+ million Xbox 360's in people's living rooms across the world. And Xbox Live has more on-demand content than any cable provider in the U.S. The new shows such as Lost are are XBL less than 24 hours after they run on cable. The Xbox is a complete package. The average X360 owner buys 7+ games. Dissecting the XBL part from 360 would loose them money.

And having Steve Ballmer as the face of your company doesn't help. He may be a great guy, I've never met him, but he comes across as an ******. His "you're either with us or against us" attitude doesn't help.

Maybe its just me, but doesn't Steve Jobs himself come off as a little arrogant? He thinks he reinvented the wheel. But then again, that may just be my HATE of apple fanboys around the internet.

 

[superfunkomatic]

like an anchor...

more lead in the holds of two already sinking ships. MSN search sucks and loses money, Yahoo has been on a downward slide. Two negatives do not make a positive. Seems like an extraordinarily high amount of money to 'try to compete with google.'
i can't see the two corporate cultures mixing, and what is microsoft left with if they cull redundancies in their businesses - still MSN search. i think they'd have been better off with media buys and bombardment of advertising than buying a flagging company.
also people's woes with windows OS has soured many on microsoft products and they've actively sought out alternatives - google, firefox and growth in alternate OSes.
it'll be interesting to see how this plays out.

 

[Naimfan]

This reminds me, for some reason, of the Sears/K-Mart merger. Two companies, at least one of whom ruled their world for a long time, who now cannot seem to adapt as quickly as their rivals. (Badandy's comments on profits and revenues respectfully noted.) That does not seem to me to be a strategy for success--two losers (relatively speaking, in this particular sphere) joining forces.

 

[robanga]

The assertion that some of the posters are making, that Microsoft is somehow dying or financially collapsing or anything of the like is getting a bit silly. As other posters have said, their financial results as well as their market share clearly indicate the opposite.

Just because you envision an alternate reality, does not necessarily make it come into being.

Could they collapse some day? Some day sure. Some day we could all be living in giant bubble space stations on Saturn's third moon as well.

Apple is gaining market share and that is great, Gartner said it could double basically. That would be fantastic. Linux is making some inroads into the desktop that is good for business too. This is all good because too much of the industry in one company's control is just plain bad.

To see this news as the beginning of some end for Microsoft though is IMHO "out there". MSFT is after yahoo for online services and ad revenues, and to head off a significant threat from Google. It's as simple as that.

 

[darkblu]

bad news for flickr and its users. yes, that includes me. oh well, time to check out google's picasa.

 

[CRAZYBUBBA]

Yesss1!!!! Microsoft for world domination!


Edit: Oooops. Posted on the wrong forum.

 

[ImperialX]

It sounds like Google squeesed the too hard and the juice inside it came out

That's why Eric Schmidt decided not to use it.

 

[hulugu]

The assertion that some of the posters are making, that Microsoft is somehow dying or financially collapsing or anything of the like is getting a bit silly. As other posters have said, their financial results as well as their market share clearly indicate the opposite.

Just because you envision an alternate reality, does not necessarily make it come into being.

Could they collapse some day? Some day sure. Some day we could all be living in giant bubble space stations on Saturn's third moon as well.
...

Yes, but some things are more likely than others.

 

[hulugu]

The Zune a failure? Far from it. They knew they were going to lose money for the first 5 years, but it's providing great competition for Apple which now has a renewed obligation to innovate and create a better product.

The Zune still isn't doing well. Microsoft expects the product line to loose money, but I just wonder how long stockholders will allow MS to burn money in order to hold onto a tiny share of this market.

I'm looking for actual sales data, but right now the Zune is hold 11th place on Amazon's Top Sellers list, bracketed by two versions of the SanDisk Sansa and following behind 7 different versions of the iPod. That's ugly, especially considering the massive advertising muscle behind the Zune.

Furthermore, the Zune doesn't push Apple, IMHO, but rather Apple has been working to blunt the mobile phone industry from replacing the iPod with music-capable phones and against more serious competition like SanDisk. The Zune isn't Microsoft Bob, but it's not a flywheel for Microsoft's business in the way that the XBox can be.
And, this is why I think Microsoft is gradually going to flame out. They've been beaten in numerous ventures by faster, smaller companies and as a company there seems to be very little recognition of this core fact.

 

[MikeTheC]

I'm very, very anti-Microsoft. I'll make no bones about that nor my general anti-Microsoft agenda. Having said that, however...

Does it strike no one as odd when a company such as Microsoft has to run new products as loss-leaders (so to speak) just to get anyone to pay attention to them? It's not that the world isn't looking for mobile audio and mobile A/V players, and it isn't as though Microsoft lacks the money to get something truly Earth-shattering developed.

I agree with a previous poster's point about not understanding why MS's shareholders haven't grown impatient with their dearth of new, not-already-established-a-long-time-ago core products which are actually successful on their own.

Or maybe I'm just missing something here. I dunno...

 

[eric55lv]

Truthfully I never liked the idea of Google buying or the other way around Apple is more electionics then web stuff and Google is huge Blogger,YouTube,Piacsa,ect. so I think that Apple may not have enough to but Google and I dont like the name AppleGoo it sounds like apple juice but this is a good name: AppleGoogle Group