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Motley Fool: Microsoft's Yen for Yahoo! Damaged Both Companies

by , 4:45 PM EST, February 20th, 2008

Speaking to the proposed acquisition of Yahoo! by Microsoft and a possible hostile takeover, the damage to both companies has already been done, according to The Motley Fool on Tuesday. The winner is Google.

The specter of being taken over by Microsoft, according to Anders Bylund, has so many Yahoo! employees spooked that a brain drain has started and key people are leaving. Resumes by all are being frantically updated.

"There are plenty of talented engineers, managers, executives, and so forth on the Yahoo! side who would rather seek their fortunes elsewhere than be subjugated to Mr. Softy," the author wrote. "Years of borderline abusive business practices -- or even the appearance thereof -- will do that to a hopeful buyer every time, especially when the target is a notoriously happy-go-lucky free spirit. Jerry Yang's official title is "CEO and Chief Yahoo!," and there is no such whimsy in Microsoft's executive suites.

Microsoft is being affected as well.

"The powerful Yahoo! brand name will remain, and so will the various Web properties that make the company tick today. You got Yahoo!'s present, Steve. Congratulations. But the future is leaving, or already gone," Mr. Bylund noted. "And the cream of your own online talent is leaving, too. The idea was "two No. 2s make a No. 1." The whole will indeed be a lot less than the sum of the parts, but not the way you imagined. It's the value of the combined operation that is going down the tubes."

The damage has been done to both companies. The bottom line was, "Google won," the author concluded. "It's too late to apologize."

Observer Comments

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Close Name:Guest
Wed Feb 20, 2008 11:40 pm Subject: MS-Yahoo

When you have Steve, aka Uncle Fester, running the show at MS, it's no wonder that MS is slipping into the realm of irrevelance regarding anything new that's being done on or off the net and it's about time. For far too long we have been saddled with a mediocre OS filled with bugs and bloatware. Vista's been a disaster and Google keeps moving on. MS will be around for years because of OS dominance but OS importance is fading away as we speak. Regarding Yahoo, I hope they can evade the clutches of the dark force just as I had hoped for Macromedia prior to being devoured by Adobe. Nuff said.


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Close Name:Guest
Thu Feb 21, 2008 12:16 am Subject: Fantasy vs Reality

The idea is "two No. 2s make a No. 1".

The reality is the distant second will be acquired by the dismal third, with people from the dismal third running the merged entity. Somehow, that doesn't sound like a recipe for success.


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Close Name:Guest
Thu Feb 21, 2008 3:48 pm Subject:

Quote
Speaking to the proposed acquisition of Yahoo


Actually, no one was "speaking to" in this case. The subject of the proposed acquisition of Yahoo! was being "spoken about," "addressed," or "discussed."

One speaks to a person but about a subject.

The ridiculous and utterly incorrect solecism "speaking to" apparently originated in the educational establishment. Go figure.


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