merger

Microsoft lashes back at Google

UPDATED: 6 p.m.

Nu-uhhh.

That's a one word summary of Microsoft's statement Sunday rebutting Google's statement earlier in the day that said Microsoft's $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo could raise antitrust concerns.

"The combination of Microsoft and Yahoo will create a more competitive marketplace by establishing a compelling number two competitor for Internet search and online advertising," Microsoft lawyer Brad Smith said in a statement. "The alternative scenarios only lead to less competition on the Internet."

Smith argues that Google already has three-quarters of the paid search market and about … Read more

Google warns on Yahoo-Microsoft

Google's top lawyer has penned a letter outlining a number of concerns it sees if Microsoft's bid for Yahoo goes through.

In the letter, "Yahoo and the future of the Internet," Google chief legal officer David Drummond says that Microsoft's offer "raises troubling questions" given the company's monopolistic past.

"This is about more than simply a financial transaction, one company taking over another," Drummond said. "It's about preserving the underlying principles of the Internet: openness and innovation.

Drummond warns that Microsoft could attempt the same things it did … Read more

Google calls Microsoft's 'hostile' bid for Yahoo troubling

A Microsoft-Yahoo merger could threaten the openness on which the Internet is based, a Google executive says.

Microsoft's $44.6 billion "hostile" bid "raises troubling questions," writes David Drummond, Google Chief Legal Officer, expresses cynicism in a blog posted on Sunday

"Could Microsoft now attempt to exert the same sort of inappropriate and illegal influence over the Internet that it did with the PC? While the Internet rewards competitive innovation, Microsoft has frequently sought to establish proprietary monopolies--and then leverage its dominance into new, adjacent markets," he writes. "Could the acquisition of … Read more

Microsoft + Yahoo!: A sign that Microsoft's best days are past

The New York Times hits the nail right on the head: If Microsoft were at the top of its game (as its numbers suggest), it wouldn't need to acquire Yahoo!:

...[Iif its proposed acquisition of Yahoo signals anything, it serves as a confirmation that Microsoft's glory days are in the past. Having failed to challenge Google where it matters most -- in online advertising -- it has been reduced to bulking up by buying Google's nearest but still distant competitor. In many ways, the company has become exactly what Bill Gates used to fear the most -- sluggish, bureaucratic, slow to respond to new forms of competition -- just as I.B.M. was when Microsoft convinced that era's tech behemoth to use Microsoft's operating system in its new personal computer.

of course, just as with IBM, becoming "sluggish, bureaucratic, [and] slow" is not to say that Microsoft is going out of business any time soon. Rather, it's just to say that Microsoft's glory days of market innovations are well past it (not that anyone was doubting this - when is the last time it really did anything innovative?).

But Microsoft can't be happy about failing miserably to compete in the 21st Century, as the Guardian notes, choosing instead to preserve its 20th-century gains:… Read more

News Corp.-Yahoo: More of a bad idea

If Rupert Murdoch decides to start a bidding war for Yahoo--that's the rumor du jour on Silicon Alley Insider--then we've truly entered the realm of the bizarre.

Not that it can't happen. I've been around this industry too long to underestimate the potential for bad decision making. Ego and daring often trump sound judgment. I won't devote more space revisiting the litany of corporate bungles that were originally hailed as strategic coups by the business elite. You can read my position on the wisdom of a Yahoo-Microsoft combination in my Friday column (click here). … Read more

Yahoo says Microsoft bid review may take time

For those wondering how long Yahoo may take to respond to Microsoft's unsolicited $44.6 billion takeover bid, Yahoo says don't hold your breath.

In a brief FAQ posted to its Web site, Yahoo says it is "undertaking a deliberate review process" and warns it could "take quite a bit of time."

Yahoo said its process "will include evaluating all of the Company's strategic alternatives--including maintaining Yahoo as an independent company."

That could include pursuing bids from other companies, Yahoo said. "That process will take some time, but the Board … Read more

Is Yahoo-Microsoft combo like .Net or LAMP?

In the recording of today's Open Season podcast, Dave Rosenberg likened Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Yahoo to the combination of AOL and Time Warner. A bit brutal, perhaps, but one gets the sneaking suspicion that he may be right.

One big question to be answered in such a merger is whose platform prevails? Microsoft's, of course. But Microsoft's platform (.Net, etc.) may be doing well in the enterprise but it's a complete bust on the Web. Try to think of a single cool startup (besides MindTouch) that is building on .Net? Time's up. There … Read more

Would Microsoft kill Yahoo Music?

One of the first things Microsoft did when launching the new Zune was kill the 2-year-old MSN Music download service.

The business reasons were plain: MSN Music was a PlaysForSure service, but the Zune wasn't PlaysForSure-compatible, and it came with its own music download service, integrated into the Zune software.

Sure, there's still something with the brand name MSN Music, but it's basically a shell--a few music videos, some promotional tie-ins with Zune (through a program called Ignition), and a radio station powered by Pandora.

So what might that mean for Yahoo Music, if Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Yahoo … Read more

Web 2.0 cage match: Microsoft vs. Yahoo

The potential merger of Microsoft and Yahoo will put the two companies' Web apps in internal conflict. In some cases, a Microsoft app might replace a Yahoo app. But in more cases, products from Yahoo, a company built for the online platform, will be the ones to survive. Here are likely outcomes from what would surely become a multiyear internal struggle.

Portals and start pages: Yahoo.com vs. MSN.com

Portal pages like My Yahoo and MSN.com, and their personal page counterparts My Yahoo and My MSN, act as big advertisements to whatever products and media the company wants to push on a given day. Yahoo and MSN will likely keep their distinct brands for a good long time while the underlying platforms and user bases are merged. On the surface, the products themselves are more alike than different. But online content and indexing is Yahoo's main business; it will pick up this battle. Winner: Yahoo.

Search: Search.yahoo.com vs. Live.com

Yahoo, founded on Internet search, has three times the search market share of Microsoft. Microsoft will kill its good-money-after-bad Web search project and move its users over to Yahoo. Winner: Yahoo.

Email: Yahoo Mail vs. Hotmail

I give the nod to the killer development team over at Yahoo, which came over in the OddPost acquisition. While most of those people are now on other Yahoo projects, the OddPost platform is slick and innovative. Microsoft could slowly move its users over. Winner: Yahoo.

Mapping: Yahoo Local Maps vs. Live Search Maps

Microsoft has the pretty bird's eye view and a 3D map viewer plug-in (which is cool but slow on many machines). But Yahoo has a better fundamental mapping product that allows click-and-drag rerouting. Google Maps is still more useful than both. Winner: a merger, hopefully, of Microsoft's features with Yahoo's nicer UI.

Photo sharing. Flickr vs. Live Spaces

Even though I think Flickr is too weird for the real world and that Yahoo should not have killed its straightforward and smooth Yahoo Photos, Microsoft buries its photo site in its blogging platform, Live Spaces. It's a nice tool but the content and the users have hewn to Flickr, due to its community-forward features like group tags and its open API. Winner: Yahoo.

Bookmarking: Delicious vs. Listas

Ever heard of Listas? Exactly. Winner: Yahoo. (Actually, Microsoft has money in Digg, but it doesn't own it.)

Yahoo's mobile promise

Microsoft's $44.6 billion bid to buy Yahoo is clearly a move to thwart rival Google from taking over the entire Internet, but such a deal also could give Microsoft a huge boost in the mobile market.

It's ridiculous to think that Microsoft would put together a deal of this magnitude for Yahoo's mobile assets alone. There are obviously other more pressing synergies and tie-ups between the companies. But the mobile piece of the story could be a nice added bonus that could pay huge dividends in the future.

Mobile is the next frontier for Internet companies. … Read more