Comments on: Microsoft-Yahoo combo could mean one fewer exit for upstarts

The two companies have acquired more than 150 companies, combined, over the last 12 years. Will the M&A spigot get turned down in a merged company?

[JCPayne]

This M$-Yahoo stuff is a dead issue.

Yahoo told Microsoft no...

Yet... It seems Microsoft users want M$ to take over Yahoo, so their stuff will get better... Yahoo users many of whom can't stand Microsoft will end up defecting from the "Combo" and either choosing a 3rd party start page/service or else will just settle for Google which for some reason the media calls google a "Monopoly"... Heck there's credit agencies, cable companies, telephone companies, ISPs, and banks that know more about you than Google does..

[Penguinisto]

Well, here's an idea...

...how about companies wise up and build their idea to last awhile, not just pray a bigger corp buys us up before we crash"?

Perfect example: PlentyOfFish. A simple free dating site/forum lash-up that two people run and make a ton of cash off of. Traffic is huge, and yet everything stays in balance. Overall, it's a basic, solid business that likely has a better profit ratio than the pay sites like Match, eHarmony, and the like (most of whom are either praying to be bought, or already have been bought-up).

I just don't get the idea of building a business like one would play the lottery. Sure, if you're YouTube you can strike it huge. But, I'm willing to wager that a ton of similar companies crashed hard trying to get what YouTube got - when instead they could've founded themselves on a somewhat decent business plan and lasted for years on end.

/P

[ptrivedi]

Microsoft-yahoo acquisition

I just want to add one scenario. What will happen to the acquisition spree if Microsoft-Yahoo acquisition fails. Why companies do not do what they do best? Microsoft designs, develops software but suddenly why they are so interested in defeating and killing Google? Why don't they do some thing so that they win in software space? A software company(Microsoft) can not run an internet company (Yahoo). Microsoft would have learned it by now. A better strategy could be to spin off Microsoft's online business. So a different management comes in and that competes against Google.
http://bitsandpennies.wordpress.com/2008/04/09/microsoft-yahoo-acquisition-value-creation-or-value-destroyer/