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Google Considering Merger With Microsoft
buford_tannen writes "According to this New York Times Article (registration, etc.), Google may be considering a merger with Microsoft in the near future. As many people know, Google's search services are powered by Linux. "
Nice sensationalist headline there. MS said they were interested, Google politely said no. I see no "consideration" there.
Of course, the whole point of the subject was to draw comments like this, so nice troll submitter, and nice troll to the admin who approved it.
Also seen in the headlines:
US Government considers merger with MS, Apple considers merger with MS, and GWB considers quitting presidency and working at Mickey D's.
Fun, isn't it?
...goes public instead can't Microsoft simply begin buying shares of Google to gain "ownership" of the company? Or, worse yet, Microsoft can simply make an offer that's really a damned good offer and the shareholders of Google - who will not be as staunch on the ethical grounds of "Don't sell obnoxious ads" and "Don't do something just to do it" and "Money is nice, but not everything." - will approve the merger with Microsoft?
At least when you're a private firm these things are controlled by the vision of a few people who agree on things and a not a fractured group who are, for the most part, out to make a buck.
My reality check bounced.
Or, will Google's Board of Directors even have the option of resisting a Microsoft bid once they're representing public shareholders?
The article says M$ approached google for purchase and were told to get lost. And slashdot says Google considering to merg with M$. Agreed you editors are busy people but please do atleast a little research before posting anything. Or you just dont care maybe?
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Sorry, no results found! Did you mean "CAPITALISM"?
Funny, perhaps. However, the reality is that Microsoft broke the rules of the free market in the context of even a libertarian government, and they will face the consequences. They painted themselves into a corner, where companies like Red Hat, Sun, IBM, Lindows, etc. are standing outside the door smiling widely. Of course, this will play out over the next decade, but it is rather inevitable even without the Justice Department intervening.
Healthcare article at Kuro5hin
False, only an additional 10-15% of shares will be on the market in the IPO. But the Venture Capital firms will still hold a large chunk of stock and they will be planning to unload as soon as they can.
Google are unlikely to take the Microsoft offer now because the IPO price will be six or seven times what the company is really worth - just like the old days...
Wait until after the IPO and there will be a different dynamic, Google will settle into a realistic valuation at which point it will be a takeover target.
The fact Google uses Linux is pretty irrelevant, if you look at what the machines are actually doing very little of the time will be spent in the kernel, porting to embedded windows would have no real impact either way. The principal cause of crashes is going to be hardware failure whichever way you work it.
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Google's extreme valuation is based on predictions that it will control almost online advertising, not on its search service. When it fails to make its numbers, it will begin to offer advertisers increasingly-intrusive ways to attack surfers. At the same time, its search results will be further degraded: Google is already losing the arms race with with link farms, and this is set to get worse.
Eventually, people will start using another search engine. (Probably one that most of us habent heard of yet.) By then, Google's valuation will be in the toilet, and its stock-holders will be happy to sell out to MS. Now, this doesn't mean that Google will die. With every PC defaulting to "MSN Google", a lot of people are still going to use it, and it's search results will sometimes still be quite useful. But the era of Google innovating is about to end. For cool new technology, look to University labs and starving entrepeneurs, not to paper billionaires worried about when their stock options will vest.