Comments on: Carl Icahn Issues Letter to Yahoo! Shareholders; Microsoft Responds

By: anger management for teens

anger management for teens — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 22:12:19 +0000

Perhaps Microsoft realizes that it doesn’t “get” the web right now, hence the huge offer. You don’t just throw money around like that unless you know you are getting value for your money.
If Microsoft infuses Yahoo and Microsoft consolidate talent pools (and trim off the fat) on their web projects, I think big things can happen.
It will ultimately benefit the users also, right now this competition among big 3 (Yahoo, Microsoft, Google) in e-mail/portal/general web space is partitioning the users the way it shouldn’t.

By: Ed

Ed — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 16:07:35 +0000

I think it’s fairly obvious that the only aspect of Yahoo that Microsoft really wants is it’s search capabilities. Live Search is terrible, and the easiest way for Microsoft to improve it would be to buy somebody else’s already established service.

By: Ravi

Ravi — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 15:46:38 +0000

I remember when google started, at that time altavista was popular. Anyway microsoft just cannot stand that they’re not good at everything. My personal opinion is that they want to be the NO1. allover the IT industry. They want to force people to like them, but buying big companies is not the way of doing that. Apparently Microsoft’s thoughts are different. They couldn’t manage to have a great share in the market with their LiveSearch (which i personally think people are using because of laziness or lack of knowledge howto change IE7 default search provider) so they are trying to buy Yahoo. I bet they would buy google if they could.

By: Business Networking

Business Networking — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 03:29:38 +0000

Come on, we knew this was going to happen a couple months ago when Icahn bought a billion dollars of stock. This guy is a real shark, he’s been eating up people like Jerry Yang for 30 years now. Did anyone really expect him not to win here.

By: Miami Cosmetic Dentistry Guide

Miami Cosmetic Dentistry Guide — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:17:08 +0000

I don’t think this merger/buyout will change anything in the “search” industry. Google has an estimated market share of 70% and Microsoft’s msn/hotmail has failed miserably. This is like the proposed Circuit City/Blockbuster merger, which was called off a couple of weeks ago. You can’t just make one good company by merging two mediocre companies together.

By: Bob Long

Bob Long — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 19:18:22 +0000

Microsoft has to buy its way into the internet because the company is loathed by many for its business practices and its mediocre and declining product quality. Even in the OS market, many have rejected Vista.
—Consider the success of Firefox. Linux has done well, even with its flaws, and OpenOffice poses a threat on the word processing front. Microsoft once had almost monopolistic control over these markets, but it alienated many users. Firefox just released a leaner version of its browser. When was the last time Microsoft did anything about cleaning up its bloated, resource-hogging OS and software?
—If Microsoft doesn’t clean up its act, it could be the General Motors of some future decade.
—If Microsoft acquires Yahoo!, many will move their email accounts elsewhere. There are just too many more attractive alternatives on the net, and Microsoft has no advantage there. The one-time inconvenience of an email-address change isn’t burdensome enough to hold users in captivity to Microsoft.
—This sale to Microsoft will likely destroy a good company. It makes sense for those who seek a quick, speculative gain on the stock. But for users, it will be a minor disaster.