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Yeah I also agree I don't see how this would help Microsoft, but Microsoft probably has enough money to make this seem like not too huge of a deal.

edit: just kidding!

It might be MS looking for a new business down the road. Once everyone has 'switched' what else are they going to do? :)
 
I don't think this will work for MS in the long run. You can't buy momentum, just technology. Google, and Apple for that matter, have more recent successful track records for making technology relevant to real life.
 
Well, gee, as if I didn't hate my DSL service on principle enough (supplied by AT& "We will turn off your internet connection if you badmouth us" T), now MS is going to own the mail and bonus services part of it. And no doubt break my email service even more than Yahoo has managed to do (their worthless spam filtering seems to be of the "EVERYTHING is spam!" variety, although I do like the web 2.0 webmail interface).

The day this is approved is the day I cancel service and switch to cable.

Which absolutely sucks, I might add, since I live like half a block from the phone substation.

Dammit.


I do completely agree that this stinks of flushing money down the toilet for absolutely no gain--it's going to hurt both companies even in the moderately short run, and 45Bn is a lot even for MS. Balmer must seriously be losing it.
 
This is just too bad for Yahoo.... MSN sucks and Yahoo is okay, now MS can mess up what there is good about Yahoo. In all... this is a HUGE waste of money at MS and their shareholders should be P**s'd off. They would have been better off spending the money to do better with Vista.

This looks like a desperate move to me... not a good thing for MS.
 
Ugh...M$ up to it's old tricks again. How about taking that $44B and building an XBOX 360 that doesn't break? Or put it into better virus fighting programs for Windows? Or make the Zune a little less unhip. :rolleyes:

Like others, it is time to find a new e-mail provider. I guess I may give .mac a shot.
 
Couple interesting things. Google missed their earnings numbers yesterday, which this news is mostly overshadowing. Could their momentum be slowing? Second, I'm surprised MS is trying to grab yahoo now. Yahoo has been slipping and going into a possible recession you had to think they were going to get cheaper.

MS really wants to get their web presence boosted though. Now I know why I'm getting emails every few days from their recruiters to apply for their web platform team...
 
Manufacturer of mp3-players, cell-phones and computer merging with a online-search company? Yeah, I can see how that makes sense....

What services do those mobile phones use though? Hmm let me think.... oh yes Google. Which company are Apple in a business alliance with? Hmmm let me think... oh yes Google. Which CEO (apart from Intels) made an appearance at Mac World? I'll save the sarcasm, Googles. Need I go on?

Oh and with Google supposedly entering the phone market there is more of a cross over between the two companies.
 
To those saying MS has the money, well, this is still a hugely significant amount for even them. It's a make or break move.
 
Come on people. Do you not understand how investments work. Yahoo currently has 12.5 Billion in assets and 3.0 Billion in liabilities. That is net 9.5 Billion in assets. They also show a profit of 4.13 Billion.

If they spend $44 Billion - $9 Billion in assets= $35 Billion for the business or profit making part. They are getting 12% return on their money. That is not too bad. Not to mention Microsoft probably feels like they can grow the business and incorporate some of their current offerings into Yahoo.
 
I feel this is a bit alarming as a Mac user.

While the iPhone supports Gmail nicely, many ISPs bundle services with Yahoo which plays nice with the iPhone as well. I would hate to see MSFT take Yahoo and somehow bastardize it to become Apple/iPhone unfreindly, whick is very possible.

Like they just did with hotmail, excuse me live mail, and Safari.
 
The concept of Yahoo! Microsoft! Live! Mail! is not a fun one. At least you've got free IMAP and POP3 options with Yahoo currently. Microsoft upgrades their search from awful Live search to Yahoo level search. Isn't the big thing snagging all the forum and mail users and searchers?
Ominous bodings for the concept of getting lots of people locked into the Live system and onto Vista, as per the CES Gate's demo, showing how people will use Windows systems in the future...
 
misleading

"This is unfortunate. Yahoo! has the most traffic of any site in the world:
http://www.alexa.com/site/ds/top_sites?ts_mode=global

I don't really want Microsoft owning all that traffic."

first, as others have pointed out, that is pretty misleading in more than one way. second, MS is the reverse of king Midas. if they touch yahoo it will turn to turd....

if this happens yahoo will begin a long downhill slide into oblivion. monkey boy has no idea how to run a company. :D
 
MS knows how to pick new, rising, innovative companies. Farewell billions. This should shock their flatline stock.
 
Ya-who?

Ya-Who? Interesting development, not on its own, but when paired with Microsoft's acquisition of aQuantive last year. This proposed takeover gives then an established web portal and search engine (a lot of us here may see Yahoo as crap, but there are many un-savvy people out there) to go along with their own interactive agency (Avenue A|Razorfish), a digital advertising network (Drive PM), and their own advertising platform and tool set (Atlas).

It seems like one of their hopes is to get really big in web advertising which, despite what many of us may think about banner ads and the like, is huge and has rebounded greatly over the past few years. Their subsidiaries can now sell potential clients on the possibility of a rich media -- video banners and the like -- advertising solution combined with search engine optimization and great placement in searches on MSN and Yahoo.

A lot of rambling to say that the acquisition of Yahoo appears to be part of a larger plan, not a one off. I'm not arguing that it will work, though. :D
 
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