This weekend I don’t know how many times I was asked by friends and neighbors whether I thought the Micorosoft acquisition of Yahoo was going to go through. In particular, I was surprised at how many non-technical people are following the possible deal. The reality is though, I don’t have a clue what’s going to happen. No one does.
Like Mary Jo Foley, the Wall Street Journal and others I have heard rumblings about the proposed deal. Most tech people I know are against it. I’m not, but then again I’m often wrong, so I’m probably on the wrong side of this one. I accept it.
Why do I think a Microsoft-Yahoo mindmelt would be a good idea? It would give Yahoo market leverage and it would give Microsoft new blood–new thinking. The tricky part for both is that Microsoft needs to be careful not to go too overboard in its acquisition so that once if does go through, if ever, that it has the financial strength to leverage it. Likewise, it’s got to be careful not to discourage the Yahoo employees that it very well could benefit from. Same goes for Microsoft’s employees. I also nonsensically like the idea of Microsoft expanding its Bay Area focus. What can I say? I love California–Seattle, not so much.
No matter what happens though, I doubt it’ll have much impact on what I or many of the people I know use or do.
I remember when Microsoft purchased Hotmail. This was one acquisition I was against. The reputation for Hotmail email was terrible. Now, it’s not, even if the name is kind of 1995ish. It just goes to show how things adapt and change.
