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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. "
Um, isn't it still about 5 months until April 1st?
Chelloveck
I give up on debugging. From now on, SIGSEGV is a feature.
You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.
Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion.
The Ledger (NY Times business section) - Microsoft and Google: Partners or Rivals?
'Microsoft - desperate to capture a slice of the popular and ad-generating search business - approached Google within the last two months to discuss options, including the possibility of a takeover.'
Financial Times (business section) - Google approached by Microsoft for takeover
'The approach "gained little traction" , according to the report, with Google indicating that it preferred to pursue an initial public offering.'
CNN Money - Microsoft courting Google
'Microsoft may still be interested in pursuing the Web search company at a later date' (The page title is 'Mr. Softee Courting Google' despite the article heading.)
It appears that Microsoft is trying to threaten Google with "If you don't merge with us, we'll make MSN search built into Longhorn, and everybody will use it instead of you because they won't know any better." To Google's credit, they think they can do a better job, find new and interesting areas to innovate, and generally tell Microsoft to suck it. The real question remains: Will Google be as good once they are a public company?
SEARCH: Linux
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SEARCH: Anti-trust
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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?
Microsoft JET Database Engine error '80004005' Could not find file 'C:\inetpub\wwwroot\google\search.mdb'.
More bandwidth, processing power, and resources. I hope this goes through ASAP.
I hate to disagree, but ff Microsoft were to buy Google and start running it, wouldn't it go through ASP?
...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.
First: I wonder how long it will take MS to figure out how to move Google to Windows. Remember the fiasco surrounding Hotmail's move from BSD (I think) to Windows?
Second: I can see the top 5 results from a search for "Linux" now:
1. Independent study shows Windows more secure than Linux
2. How to lower TCO by switching from Linux to Windows
3. Linux for terrorists, says expert.
4. Nazis retake Germany, install Linux
5. Linux bad for innovatoin, says expert panel.
Of course, all of these links will be to "archived" versions of "authentic" articles on a MS server somewhere.
Seriously. If we can't trust the MS marketing engine to be honest about their products, how can we trust them to keep their grubby fingers out of search results?
At least we'll still have alltheweb.com.
Or perhaps Slashdot is celebrating some other holiday that involves scaring people.
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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It's clear that Microsoft recognizes the value of Google's technology.
I don't know about you, but my web browsing relies heavily on Google to find sites that I will look at. I mean, that level of reliance is almost like how I rely on libc . And any businesses that I might find on the other end probably consider high Google rank worth a lot of money.
Microsoft, of course, loves to be in a position where people and businesses have to rely upon them heavily. It's potentially quite profitable.
Until now, people have relied on Google's goodwill not to use their powerful position unfairly. Since there are monetary incentives for Googles business to "manage" those searches differently, I'm alway apprehensive and would be appalled if a company with Microsoft's track record were to gain that additional power (as if they aren't sufficiently powerful now).
"Provided by the management for your protection."
What to do? Switch to Teoma.
I use Teoma interchangably with Google. Teoma results are as relevant as Google's yet slightly different, however they almost always have the best most relevant results in common.
Teoma's search site is as sparse and ad free as Google's and the search results are of as high a quality. The only Google feature I would miss if it were to dissapear tomorrow is the Google cache.
Eat at Joe's.
Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, recently spoke at my school (University of Maryland; he got his CS degree here). In no uncertain words he said how much he hated Microsoft - he is on our side every step of the way - against monopolies, against DRM, against the DMCA (which forced Google to censor certain webpages), etc. The only way this merger will ever happen is over Sergey Brin's cold, dead body.
Cyde Weys Musings - Scrutinizing the inscrutable
My tinfoil hat may be on too tight, however:
1. Microsoft Loses Antitrust case.
2. Bush gets into the Whitehouse and expected results of antitrust case become very wattered down.
3. Microsoft employee becomes chief of cyber security for the government - authors 'National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace'.
4. Google is known to have former NSA people on the payroll.
5. Microsoft's 'trusted computing' strategy includes building an all in one DRM gateway.
6. Microsoft goes after Google...
It seems to me that Microsoft is tightening their ties with government in an attempt to influence the upcoming DRM war. What better way to do that than to have an inside man to set internet security policy, to control all access of electronic resources into the home, and to control the most important search portal. There are probably other evidence to support this view - but I don't have the time to 'google' it all for you (kind of ironic, if it wasn't so scary in a 'big brother is watching you' sort of way...)
To paraphrase Frank Herbert, "he who controls the access, controls the universe"
Lodragan Draoidh
The more you explain it, the more I don't understand it. - Mark Twain
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.
Looking for an Information Security student project suggestion?
Try http://dotcrimeManifesto.com/
Sorry, but the headline and description are totally misleading. I don't care which submission was posted on this story, but at least get it right. A merger would have meant that Microsoft effectively controlled the Internet, at least until someone came along with a better technology. Here's the post that I originally submitted:
Microsoft and Google: Partners or Rivals?
The New York Times Technology reports that Microsoft and Google were in partnership/takeover discussions during the last two months, in part due to the competitive threat that Google poses to Microsoft. 'Microsoft - desperate to capture a slice of the popular and ad-generating search business - approached Google.' Ultimately Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page decided to go the initial public offering (IPO) route. How different might things be if Google had agreed to be acquired by Microsoft? Looks like we'll never know. This also puts some of the search industry frenzy and acquisition activities into a different context. Fittingly, here's a Google link to the article.
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.