Yahoo and Microsoft - Now what?

Jerry - congrats. I guess. You have to be feeling a bit like the procrastinator that gets a last minute extension on a term paper. Yes, you have a second life but you haven’t really fixed any of the underlying issues. Now you need to get in bed with Google, buy AOL, or BOTH!
Steve B - congrats. I guess. You dodged a bullet and avoided buying a Unix/Linux development teams that would have created all sorts of unbelievable cultural and technical hurdles in an arena where the stakes are extremely high. But like the overachieving but uninspired student that turns his paper in early you still have to deal with the fact that you don’t have many original ideas and you’re playing more on reputation than ability.

Google - congrats. Seriously.

Come on Yahoo (I mean Jerry) enough is enough

I get it. You don’t want to be acquired by Microsoft. But giving employees a really generous retention/severance package as a poison pill? The people who don’t leave are now rooting for Yahoo to sell. The rest see this as just another irrational management decision honoring history and legacy more than good business sense and innovation.

And this coming from a guy who had a soft spot for an independent Yahoo!… Isn’t it funny how quickly Goliath can become David?

Microhoo! on the brain

In a very fitting protest to the proposed Microhoo! merger, Flickr users are posting protest images. This one is my favorite (Source: Sigalakos.) You can view the entire collection here.

What’s not being discussed about the Yahoo/Microsoft deal

Yahoo is a Unix/Linux shop with a lot of open source coding tools. They use Java, Perl, etc. They don’t use (to my knowledge) much if any Microsoft web development platforms. People talk about corporate culture but this goes way beyond simple cultural issues. I once had a Microsoft team demand a video player use Silverlight (with its 2% market adoption at the time) instead of Adobe’s Flash (with ~98% market adoption) because it would look bad if Microsoft supported Flash when they had a new (and better - MSFT’s eyes) solution. Imagine this conversation happening all across the integrated conquered acquired company. If Yahoo!/Microsoft must become the ultimate case study for Microsoft Development tools many of the best and most independent Yahoo! developers will walk.

Microsoft talks about the synergies of their combined R&D operations. Now imagine half of them are forced to speak a new language and use tools generally considered inferior.