Microsoft in Talks To Acquire Ebay

thatedeguy writes "The NY Post is reporting that Microsoft and Ebay are in talks for the online auction house to join the Microsoft family." That said, the talks aren't going that well at the moment. From the article: " Sources indicate that the talks, while still active, have cooled somewhat in the last two weeks as executives considered antitrust issues. It is unclear what the full impact of yesterday's advertising and search alliance between Yahoo! and eBay will be for talks between MSN and eBay. One source close to the matter suggested the Yahoo-eBay tie-up would not stop Microsoft from pursuing the online auctioneer."

Comments

And how long would it be

[kilodelta]

Before Ebay had to stop using Open Source software and going with MS provided software.

Good god - if you think Ebay is mostly unusable now just wait and see what happens when the entire operating platform is switched to Microsoft products.

Re:mmmm monopolies...

[Irish_Samurai]

Gmail - Data mining and spyware/ stop doint it
Google Toolbar - Spyware/ stop doing it
AdWords - No support for clickfraud/ support the people who make you money
Google China - Following local laws at the expense of human decency/ Decide that money isn't everything

Do I need to keep going?

They deserve each other

[kimvette]

Microsoft has earned scorn from customers for suing customers for reselling old/retired software "licenses," a crappy activation process, DRM, bucking established standards, and insecure operating systems and applications (and downplaying vulnerabilities until some script kiddie takes a proof of concept, implements it, and unleashes it). Maintenance is a headache, and many tasks require bringing the system down (e.g., "maintenance windows"). Not only that, but to appear competitive, they redefine common terms such as "downtime" for marketing purposes. Don't get me wrong; Microsoft produces some great products (in terms of feature set) but they libel and slander the competition to make themselves look better.

eBay has earned a reputation for having the world's worst customer service, not refunding charges when they should, and for unjustly cancelling users' auctions. They have been so atrocious that they have earned the moniker "feebay" from a large group of customers.

Therefore, in my view, Microsoft and eBay deserve each other.