Microsoft Walking Away from Yahoo Acquisition

[G58]

This is a hardware win, not an indication that anyone got the software right.

In the beginning, there was IBM. Then IBM was cloned. Then the clones were cloned. Each time the software remained crap and the hardware was developed to run the software.

It's a myth that Windows is amazing because it runs on so many computers. What's amazing [in a crushingly sad way] is that the world swallowed the 'one size fits all' solution from a greedy geek that dresses in Walmart.

So what we're actually left with [in about five years time] is a mouse manufacturer that used to make Office - before all our apps went online... oh, and we won't be using mice anymore either!

And the Japanese will always know how to make money from games consoles, so as good and popular as the 360 might be, there's no profit in it for M4 now, and there's no future in it.

Think about it. The company that's incapable of skating to where the puck's going to be is not going to survive.

As much as we all like to bash Microsoft, it does have a few good products.

I, for one, think that Windows handles amazingly well when one considers the sheer number of computers it is currently running on. While I don't care for Windows personally, I think I can appreciate it as a generally good product.*

Microsoft also has Office, and while it isn't the end-all in productivity software, it is pretty good. It's overpriced in my opinion, but that isn't really a factor in determining the general worth of a product.

I also happen to think that Microsoft makes the best mice, hands down. They are very comfortable and all around excellent in build quality.

There are a few other minor and random products I would bring up, but I think the point is made.


*Vista is not necessarily included in this.

 

[G58]

The truth is, we all do. It's just that some of us haven't worked that out yet.

I'm totally with you on both these points. I've been saying the same thing since... 1995?

It's refreshing to no longer be a lone voice.

If you have an old car with a worn out everything, you don't go out and buy a brand new engine for it. You scrap it and start again.

The world according to M$ dictates that you keep your old car and spend years developing a new engine, leave most of the old engine [DOS] in place and bolt the new one on top.

And for the next two decades or more you keep repeating the same process. But all the time, there's the old engine still there under all the stolen photocopies of Mac OS X!

Because I live i a world similar to Apple, where i have to innovate to survive. Idea thieving leeches with more money than brains surround me, it's a constant battle of innovation and secrecy over blundering short sighted behemoths.

I also truly believe man-kinds technological progression has been severely handicapped by msft over the past two decades.

 

[Erwin-Br]

Oh brother. Another thread of pitiful MS bashing. I'm almost ashamed to be an Appl€ rolleyes user.

 

[Queso]

Oh brother. Another thread of pitiful MS bashing. I'm almost ashamed to be an Appl€ rolleyes user.

Liking Apple and disliking Microsoft are not mutually dependent. I'm no Mac Fanboi™, but Microsoft have done nothing of worth for years, and have proven time and again that they will both hinder progress to maintain their monopoly position and virtually halt all development on a product when it obtains market dominance. They currently contribute virtually nothing, and are only focussed on taking down the threat from Google, which helps nobody but their own shareholders.

 

[gifford]

i mean really, they must be doing something right when they have a huge market share.

yep, they have learnt how to wield a monopoly, and they do it well.

They have stifled innovation, like i said.

Oh brother. Another thread of pitiful MS bashing. I'm almost ashamed to be an Appl€ rolleyes user.

whats so pitiful of me saying the truth, I hate them, I really do, life is precious, and I have wasted much time over the years making my products compatible with msft. because I'm forced to. because they lead through intimidation, corruption, manipulation and stealing, not by innovation.

 

[50548]

Oh brother. Another thread of pitiful MS bashing. I'm almost ashamed to be an Appl€ rolleyes user.

Yes, you should. If you really think MS is king, please go buy a PC and use Windows all day long. MS bashing is not reserved to Mac fans only, it's a global routine for those that: 1) use MS products; 2) have to put up with MS twisted Internet standards; 3) know what MS has done in terms of abuse of market power; 4) know how MS got the "right" to create Windows in the first place.

If you are not included in the groups above or, better yet, make lots of money supporting MS crap as an IT "MS-certified" technician, again: enjoy your PC and be happy.

 

[coleridge78]

Google didn't become popular simply because its homepage has a nice color scheme; Google offers better services than either Yahoo! or MSN, and that's why it is dominant in that market.

Wrong.

Google is dominant in search (though not as dominant as some think... their percentage is in the 70s) because for a long time, they had the best search. It's force of habit at this point, mostly.

Google is dominant in ads because they were the first to strongly ride the wave of context-appropriate, integrated (ie, text-only, styled by the host) ads. Their position there is eroding.

Google is not dominant in any other area. Blogging, collaboration, etc, Yahoo cleans their clock. Personally, I don't like either of their services much, but lets take mail as an example. Despite all the tech echo chamber hype that circulates among a couple dozen blogs and sites online, the fact is that Yahoo Mail's active user base is more than an order of magnitude larger than GMail's, and growing more quickly even though Google dropped the invite system a year and a half ago. The market has spoken, and most people don't really like Google's non-search consumer services, despite the hype and what your friends say.

Where this entire market goes from here is a very unsettled question. Most likely outcome is that in five years Google looks something like Yahoo does now.

 

[coleridge78]

Exchange is the only truly smart product MS make which is singularly why they continue to dominate the business world - everything else is trash when compared to Apple's alternatives.

Incredible but true - MS maintains it's empire on email servers - and in turn that's why people buy windows (and Office) so they can connect to their email using Outlook. Everything else follows...

Not really true. It's easy to buy into this canard because it gets repeated so much, but the fact is that unless you massage a definition of "enterprise" just so in order to guarantee the outcome you are looking for, Exchange runs a small amount of the email world, both enterprise and non. Much like GMail's supposed dominance (when in fact its active user base is a single-digit percentage of the market), it is a common wisdom canard that propagates in internet echo chambers.

 

[gifford]

I'm not just a random msft basher, I have a long history of bashing PC's, and I wont be satisfied until they are history. I dont care which company does it, although Google and Apple look likely suspects at the moment.

I used ZX80, TI994a, Apricot and Atari ST first, then I remember my school buying a load of PC's , I remember thinking "what the hell is this piece of sh*t" for a couple of years my computing life was hell, it was like using computers designed by someone with no soul, satans computers. Then someone showed me a Mac. God spoke to me that day, he said I was the chosen one, to rid the world of crappy user interfaces. So I lurked on forums from that day forth, spreading the mac gospel.

 

[BongoBanger]

The sheer volume of anti MS drivel, poor understanding of MS products and their global impact and just plain old fashioned stupidity in this topic is mind boggling.

I like some Apple products. I like some MS products. I have stock in both companies. I hate neither but what I do hate are the mindless, idiotic fanboys on both sides of the divide.

As for the topic in hand, I don't think MS have given up - this move is intended to put pressure on the Yahoo board as a number of their institutional investors will now be asking some very hard questions of Messrs Yang and Co indeed.

 

[Mackan]

I'm not just a random msft basher, I have a long history of bashing PC's, and I wont be satisfied until they are history. I dont care which company does it, although Google and Apple look likely suspects at the moment.

I used ZX80, TI994a, Apricot and Atari ST first, then I remember my school buying a load of PC's , I remember thinking "what the hell is this piece of sh*t" for a couple of years my computing life was hell, it was like using computers designed by someone with no soul, satans computers. Then someone showed me a Mac. God spoke to me that day, he said I was the chosen one, to rid the world of crappy user interfaces. So I have lurked on forums from that day forth spreading the mac gospel.

Now you scare me.

 

[gifford]

The sheer volume of anti MS drivel, poor understanding of MS products and their global impact and just plain old fashioned stupidity in this topic is mind boggling.

Is it stupid to want a better future for our children? think of the children.

 

[Poll Smoker]

...this is a non story of epic proportions.

Yet you've still managed to make a half-dozen posts on the subject on this page?

 

[MBP15C2D4GBLED]

Good vs. Evil, blah blah blah

This is not a case of good vs. evil.

MS is a respectable company. They make a solid product that 90% of the world buys to do their day to day processing. Additionally, the market force MS has applied to PCs, has cheapened PCs incredibly (and it made it impossible for Apple to choose any platform BUT Intel for current Macs), and dramatically caused performance increases since the playing field is level between manufacturers.

Yahoo is not that respectable. They are a search engine. Yes, they and Google have made loads of cash, but how long will it last? It's a search for goodness sakes! Computers have been searching stuff since their inception. It's not like Google really holds a performance advantage over its competitors anymore, but inertia is keeping them at the top of the game, which keeps the advertising dollars coming in to them more so than other search engines.

I think the big mistake here was MS even wanting Yahoo in the first place. MS has a lot of talent, and top grade talent, too. They could build a search just as powerful as their two competitors, but for whatever reason they don't, and they would have preferred to capture Yahoo and let them burn through the search engine development cash instead.

I really hope MS is not in decline as many have suggested. I think the end of the cheap hw and a decent everyman OS would be nigh if MS declines to the point of not "running the show". It will also draw more focus on Mac. I love my fleet of Macs (8-core MacPro, 2 15" MBP c2d units, and a c2d mini: all paid for in cash, and purchased last/this year for mostly personal use, thanks), but I also know that we don't get the spotlight shown on our security because hackers are too busy with the big dog, Microsoft.

So in closing, this is not the evil empire vs. yahoo. This is Yahoo board of directors being asinine, but probably at the final benefit of Microsoft, and of great detriment to yahoo's stock holders.

 

[rockosmodurnlif]

While this is certainly interesting, why is it the lead story on MacRumors?

It's the weekend.

Wrong.

Google is dominant in search (though not as dominant as some think... their percentage is in the 70s) because for a long time, they had the best search. It's force of habit at this point, mostly.

Google is dominant in ads because they were the first to strongly ride the wave of context-appropriate, integrated (ie, text-only, styled by the host) ads. Their position there is eroding.

Google is not dominant in any other area. Blogging, collaboration, etc, Yahoo cleans their clock. Personally, I don't like either of their services much, but lets take mail as an example. Despite all the tech echo chamber hype that circulates among a couple dozen blogs and sites online, the fact is that Yahoo Mail's active user base is more than an order of magnitude larger than GMail's, and growing more quickly even though Google dropped the invite system a year and a half ago. The market has spoken, and most people don't really like Google's non-search consumer services, despite the hype and what your friends say.

Where this entire market goes from here is a very unsettled question. Most likely outcome is that in five years Google looks something like Yahoo does now.

I disagree with blogging. Google owns Blogger don't they? And I have no idea what Yahoo does when it comes to blogging. And Google also owns YouTube, I have no idea what Yahoo does when it comes to video viewing. I do think Google's share price is ridiculous tough.

 

[seedster2]

I have had a great issue-free experience with XP SP2 at work. Office and exchange work seemlessly and I have never had a virus.

I also enjoy using OSX for casual personal stuff. I don't really enjoy Apple ilife apps like everyone else does, I imagine the Pro apps are significantly better. Right now I only use Safari and Itunes otherwise, I use Adobe products.

Both OS's work great for me I always dismiss this bashing as zealots having too much coffee.

 

[surferfromuk]

Not really true. It's easy to buy into this canard because it gets repeated so much, but the fact is that unless you massage a definition of "enterprise" just so in order to guarantee the outcome you are looking for, Exchange runs a small amount of the email world, both enterprise and non. Much like GMail's supposed dominance (when in fact its active user base is a single-digit percentage of the market), it is a common wisdom canard that propagates in internet echo chambers.

Got stats? Would be interested to see them

 

[k2spitfire88]

i think you're right, but hopefully not. and if you're not, then we'll be hearing steve ballmer yelling, "we let them off the hook!" (love those coors light commercials...)

If it doesn't happen that way, I will be surprised...

Exchange is the only truly smart product MS make which is singularly why they continue to dominate the business world - everything else is trash when compared to Apple's alternatives.

Incredible but true - MS maintains it's empire on email servers - and in turn that's why people buy windows (and Office) so they can connect to their email using Outlook. Everything else follows...

If Apple got Calendar, mail and contacts working on OSX with Exchange natively in a seamless manner - the last true obstacle to OSX as an realistic enterprise desktop client would disappear. Right now it 'sort of works for mail only' and the only proper method is with Entourage but that just perpetuates the Office monopoly.

Let me repeat that for APPLE - Make OSX 'Mail', 'iCal' and ' Address Book' integrating SEAMLESSLY to an Exchange Server and you WILL gain massive enterprise desktop share - and better do it quick because all your new iPhone users with Active sync are quickly going to want to switch until they find Office is once again their only way forward for email connections to an exchange server.

I disagree. I never use exchange, and I know that most people do not. However, Office, and especially Office '07, meets many users needs, and more. Plus, I actually like the UI on '07, (i should probably make sure I'm feeling ok, i usually hate everything Microsoft...yup, I have a fever )

Wrong.

Google is dominant in search (though not as dominant as some think... their percentage is in the 70s) because for a long time, they had the best search. It's force of habit at this point, mostly.

Google is dominant in ads because they were the first to strongly ride the wave of context-appropriate, integrated (ie, text-only, styled by the host) ads. Their position there is eroding.

I think part of the reason that it is so high is that it is your (meaning everyone's) browser. Safari has a google search, as does FF. I think that it is much easier to type it in the little search bar, and then go to the new page instead of going to a search engine and doing it instead. Since google is in all the toolbars, it is easier to just use it. That's why I do it.

I'm not just a random msft basher, I have a long history of bashing PC's, and I wont be satisfied until they are history. I dont care which company does it, although Google and Apple look likely suspects at the moment.

I used ZX80, TI994a, Apricot and Atari ST first, then I remember my school buying a load of PC's , I remember thinking "what the hell is this piece of sh*t" for a couple of years my computing life was hell, it was like using computers designed by someone with no soul, satans computers. Then someone showed me a Mac. God spoke to me that day, he said I was the chosen one, to rid the world of crappy user interfaces. So I lurked on forums from that day forth, spreading the mac gospel.

Wow, that made me laugh hysterically.

 

[MBP15C2D4GBLED]

Canard?

Not really true. It's easy to buy into this canard because it gets repeated so much, but the fact is that unless you massage a definition of "enterprise" just so in order to guarantee the outcome you are looking for, Exchange runs a small amount of the email world, both enterprise and non. Much like GMail's supposed dominance (when in fact its active user base is a single-digit percentage of the market), it is a common wisdom canard that propagates in internet echo chambers.

I can only count on 1 finger the number of groups who are not running Exchange for email infrastructure (in my experience).

Granted, I know there are more, but in general, companies dig Exchange.

I would love to see your statistics that suggest otherwise. I actually searched on the web, rather than forwarding a canard about "massaged data", etc.

http://garysweeting.blogspot.com/2007/03/gartner-puts-microsoft-exchange-market.html

For over 100 employee companies, they own 49%. For 500 and over, they own 62%.

You, my friend, are the one echoing canards.

 

[elgrecomac]

So Google is good and MS is bad? Really? Why?

I find it interesting that so many people feel that one dominating, monolithic company is so much better than another dominating monolithic company. Why is it that GOOGLE is perceived to be 'good' and MS is perceived to be 'bad"? Google doesn’t' want competition. It brings it billions to bear when someone is in its way...just like Microsoft. Google wants to eliminate Yahoo as much as it wants to eliminate Microsoft I strongly believe yahoo will be done/gone in 5 years or less...left in the wake of Google. So I ask the questions again...
So Google is good and MS is bad? Really? Why?

 

[mac-er]

Well that was a lame anticlimactic ending

This isn't the ending; it really the beginning of the really fun part.

It is a business move to drive down Yahoo's stock price. It is a part of the negotiation or arm-twisting, in this case.

MSFT knows that it will be difficult to take over Yahoo through a hostile takeover, so this is an attempt to destroy Yahoo's value from the inside out. Shareholders will revolt, possibly sue the company for failing to make money for them, etc, etc.

 

[coleridge78]

I can only count on 1 finger the number of groups who are not running Exchange for email infrastructure (in my experience).

Granted, I know there are more, but in general, companies dig Exchange.

I would love to see your statistics that suggest otherwise. I actually searched on the web, rather than forwarding a canard about "massaged data", etc.

http://garysweeting.blogspot.com/2007/03/gartner-puts-microsoft-exchange-market.html

For over 100 employee companies, they own 49%. For 500 and over, they own 62%.

You, my friend, are the one echoing canards.

Oy vey. This is exactly what I'm talking about. Look closer at Gartner's report... it's a measurement of share between Exchange, Lotus, Groupwise, and the smaller also-rans in the same space. It does not address the majority of people across every industry (and a gigantic, overwhelming majority in higher ed, high tech, and small businesses) who are on non-"enterprise" e-mail systems. There are a few million Exchange seats in America; there are tens of millions of people using email in business. It's not hard to see.

 

[coleridge78]

I disagree with blogging. Google owns Blogger don't they? And I have no idea what Yahoo does when it comes to blogging. And Google also owns YouTube, I have no idea what Yahoo does when it comes to video viewing. I do think Google's share price is ridiculous tough.

Google does own Blogger, yes, but its overall share of that market (compare to livejournal, blogging on social networks, and independent setups of things like MovableType) is quite small. You're right that Yahoo doesn't have a competitor in that space, but I was talking more generally about Google's supposed "dominance".

You're also right that I forgot youtube. Aside from search, that's the other space that Google does truly dominate. YouTube makes up over half of the network traffic on most university campuses in the US now.

 

[mgauss]

Yahoo is worthless anyway

Everybody knows Yahoo is old news. Google is it now.

 

[k2spitfire88]

You're also right that I forgot youtube. Aside from search, that's the other space that Google does truly dominate. YouTube makes up over half of the network traffic on most university campuses in the US now.

Ya it does, at my college, our wi-fi speed gets bogged down every day from a lot of people on youtube and the like...it really slows to a crawl...