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Yahoo!/Microsoft Execs Meet For Round Two
psychosmyth writes "Microsoft's deal to Yahoo! is apparently back on the table. Yahoo execs met again with Microsoft early this past week to re-discuss the deal that fell through earlier. 'The gathering, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, gave Microsoft its first chance to sell Yahoo on the rationale for the proposed marriage since the software maker unveiled its plans six weeks ago. Since then, Yang has been exploring different ways to ward off Microsoft. The alternatives have included possible alliances with Internet search and advertising leader Google Inc., News Corp.'s MySpace.com and Time Warner Inc.'s AOL.' Microsoft is apparently still keeping all of its options open; a hostile take-over is not out of the question."
Maybe, but Yahoo isn't just a search engine, is it..
I don't think it's likely that yahoo will disappear, after all, it has a lot of customers. I don't think this will cure microsofts internet woes. They dropped that ball a long time ago, and yahoo have shown that they are no google. Buying them won't change much for either company.
Whatever happens, a lot of shareholders will become richer.
When they use the words "proposed marriage" to describe a Yahoo/Microsoft merger, it reminds me of an old Western melodrama. You know: the villain has managed to buy the local bank, so now he owns the mortgage on the girl's farm, and she has to marry him, or watch him forclose on her beloved farm and turn her out into the cold...
"Things are looking dire for Miss Yahoo! Will she be forced to offer her hand in marriage to the dastardly Cornelius Microsoft, to save her farm and herself? The very thought is too much for her weak constitution, and her stock price swoons! Cornelius, in the bank office, clutches the mortgage in his bony fingers, then twists his long, black moustache. He throws a chair across the office, laughing in triumph. But who is that figure silhouetted against the horizon? That handsome, broad-shouldered man wearing a white hat and riding a white stallion? The reflected sun shines from the gleaming sheriff's badge on his chest, which reads, 'Don't be evil'. But can he possibly come soon enough to save the fair Miss Yahoo? Next week, the exciting finale!"
Of course, it's a serial. So the next episode ends in a cliffhanger, with Microsoft tying Yahoo to the train tracks as Google races to get there in time...