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Microsoft Sets Three Week Deadline for Yahoo! In Public Letter
An anonymous reader writes "In a letter sent today, Microsoft writes to Yahoo's board of directors to tell them that they would like to 'negotiate a definitive agreement on a combination of our companies.' Their message is a combination of friend and foe: 'If we have not concluded an agreement within the next three weeks, we will be compelled to take our case directly to your shareholders.'"
Which means frankly, that MS is going to own Yahoo.
I don't know if this is good or bad, but time will tell... The shareholders hear only the sounds that money makes, and they are going to sell out quickly, especially in the midst of this recession.
The price is always right if someone else is paying.
Microsoft trying to take over Yahoo is old news. Microsoft threatening someone is old news. Techies should be rejoicing over the return of Galactica, and yet, what do we get here? Sadly, silence. Some geeks these days!
To paraphrase Captain Kirk: "I mock your superior intellect."
And Spock. "He is very intelligent, but his thinking is two dimensional."
This is my sig.
Two companies scrambling to maintain relevance, control and faltering business models in a world of open-source, choice and convergence...In my opinion, this proposed merger will not be good for the general public.
"Time is nothing; timing is everything."
Come on, Yahoo. I think Microsoft is being reasonable here, plus offering quite a bit. Even though I'm not a huge Microsoft fan, there is a thing called common courtesy.
Resistance at $29.37 per share is useless.
and making a lot more friends on the way.
Seems to become a staff/owner aging issue or they are getting desparate.
Dear God not the shareholders!!! Honestly, if a "threat to shareholders" is the only offensive weapon Microsoft has, Microsoft may as well give up. Yahoo doesn't intend on becoming absorbed and re-branded, not to mention that such as deal would piss off a lot of users.
I am not really here right now.
"Or Steve Ballmer will EAT YOU!!!"
Yeah, my karma sucks....but so do the mods.
If I was Yahoo, I would tell them, by the time Windows 7 is out... next year.. or so.
The shareholders hear only the sounds that money makes, and they are going to sell out quickly, ...
... especially in the midst of this recession.
Shareholders are supposed to sell when they receive an advantageous offer. Advantageous being a return that is more likely greater than holding the stock. What do you think shareholders are, some sort of fanboys? More importantly, why do think the founders of the company went public and brought in shareholders, it was so that the founders could pocket a lot of money. So now the story that the founders sold to the shareholders turns out not to be true, and the shareholders are looking for their best option. This is the way public financing works.
The motivation to sell in this specific case is not the recession but a failed business model.
FWIW, the midst of a recession is usually the time to buy. The onset of a recession is usually the time to sell.
"If we have not concluded an agreement within the next three weeks, we will be compelled to take our case directly to your shareholders, including the initiation of a proxy contest to elect an alternative slate of directors," Ballmer wrote.
Isn't that basically what they just got done doing with ISO? Buy the votes to get their way "by-the-rules"?
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
If yahoo wants to be on the windows desktop by default, this could be the way to do it.
"We're determined to destroy both our companies, so hurry up and help us!"
expandfairuse.org
... that we'll be dressing up the Yahoo! logo as a borg ?
That'd actually be pretty sweet.
You know, despite being a Yahoo! mail user since the 90's who hates Microsoft as much as the next slashdotter, I actually hope they do merge now just so I can see that.
Sorry, I had to say it. This can only help Google obtain total domination of internet advertising, as M$ will screw Yahoo! just as they did with MapBlast. And (Alta ?)Vista.
Sounds like M$ is getting desperate. All that money they invested in Live doesnt appear to be paying off. hehe I love it. M$ sux0rs
Doesn't this sound like a case for antitrust? I don't think EU would approve it.
poster saith:
Maybe Apple and Yahoo! should offer to buy Microsoft - and make the same "swim with the fishes" offer.
Wonderful, who is M$ going to buy next, Disney?
Kiss your flickr, del.icio.us, yahoo mail, zimbra, and more goodbye!
The borg/gates image is more powerfully true now more than ever.
How many computer stores are you walking into and walking out with an OS other than Windows?
2008 and we're still fucked by the monopoly. I can't wait for M$ Silverlight to ejaculate on all of the former Yahoo services as a requirement.
Enjoy your next Halo, xbox, and directx version, tater heads.
"I am Ballmer of Borg. Your life as it has been is over. From this time forward, you will service us. Resistance is futile."
Gee, that's a nice company you have there. It would be a shame if the stockholders lose faith in you ...
Are they trying to drive the share price down? Is it against the law to put a company in uncertainty and controversy just for your own ends?
Twinstiq, game news
i've already migrated most of my on-line accounts and 'reply-to' email address accounts to:
gmail.com
buh-bye, yahoo!
it was fun while it lasted!
ta-ta!
"I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further."
The more money MS blows on purchasing Yahoo!, the less they have to go do mischief elsewhere.... So that is sort of good news.
And if the Yahoo! stockholders can't learn from history what MS does to companies they "embrace"..oh well...tough beans, and more good news, because our economy as a whole is suffering from short term profits "investors" mindsets..so.. if they approve it and wind up taking a bath eventually..who cares really? And if *MS* stockholders think blowing billions on this is a good idea, rather than, you know, actually producing good code and paying good devs... well ditto for them as well, again, who cares?
What the hell does Yahoo have that MS wants so badly? Technologies? I was under the impression that Yahoo was pretty heavily invested in F/OSS technologies. People? I highly doubt many, if any, of the Yahoo elite would stay if MS bought them. Hell I am sure Google would offer them all jobs automatically should this happen to suck them all away.
It just looks so strange for Microsoft to take such a hard lined approach to this. I don't know if it looks desperate or childish but it certainly is strange. It almost looks like they are panicking?
If Microsoft take over Yahoo, I want to use another company for email.
For obvious reasons, HotMail is not an option, nor is Google's GMail!
So what are the viable alternatives for an email provider?
-Nivag
No one here can suggest anything to you without knowing what criteria you rate free email services by. It is even more difficult to make a recommendation when you have seemingly arbitrary judgements as to which services you won't use.
I don't think you understand. In a publicly held company, the shareholders own the company. If they want money (and they do), they'll just vote out the board at Yahoo and vote in one that is in favor of being bought out.
That's it exactly. If Microsoft really wanted to buy Yahoo! then MS should have bought Yahoo! shares on the market. MS could have bought 4.9% of Yahoo!'s shares before notifying anyone about it, SEC, the Securities and Exchange Commission requires stockholders to make a filing once they've bought 5% of a corporation's stocks. Though I'm not now if I had been a Yahoo! stockholder when MS first made the offer and the board accepted it I very well may of filed a lawsuit against the board. Most of the tyme when a buyer makes an offer they make it a low offer, those who don't believe this need to pay a visit to a bazaar, it called haggling or in more polite environs negotiating. In Yahoo!'s case, as the board didn't want to sell, why should they negotiate?
FalconShould there be a Law?
Lavabit. Decent storage, but AWESOME privacy.
"What gutter demographic are they looking for with this?"
They want to attract people who habitually waste their money. Advertisers who sell junk will pay more to attract foolish people. Those advertisers can pay more because they have high profits; selling junk is very profitable.
I don't think so, MS would have a hard tyme buying Disney because Steve Jobs is on Disney's board of directors.
FalconShould there be a Law?
Ultimately, the shareholders of Yahoo! are its users. If they lose their users, their business is worth nothing.
So the first question is:
How do I let Yahoo know I'm bailing out of their email services if they turn into MicroHoo! ?
MSFT blows big bucks (may even has to borrow money). Yahoo share holders get bailed out, MSFT distracted by a tarbay for years to come.
It just doesn't get much better than this.
I might even have to buy some Yahoo stock just to vote YES YES YES.
Good question, and I am like you going to seek another email service if MS does take over Yahoo. Not Google too.
This deal has the same disturbing sense as the single mother unable to find a job and forced to *uck the ugly fat landlord to pay rent.
If the shareholders do not believe in the leaders of the company as chosen by the board. Fine. But if all anyone should care about is the stock value in the moment, isn't that what led to the mortgage meltdown and the economic downturn and consequently Yahoo's current bleak outlook?
Prediction: Yahoo will be taken over. Half of its brightest people will stay to take their chance with MS and toil away anonymously for the next 3 years; the founders and other half smart people will go on to help Google or startup something new. The 16M unique visitors will drop in half. After taking 2-3 years to integrate the back-end technology and infrastructure of the 2 companies, it'll cost MS 3X the original price tag. Consumers will be so confused by the 250 different desktop-tied-in online services and the 500 different names by which they will be called as offered by MicrosofToo that remaining old Yahoo users will finally give up. After Windows 7 flops the new name the entity will be known is Micro-Who?
My advise to Yahoo shareholders: Sell to MS. Then buy Google, AT&T, and VM & network hardware vendor stocks.
Never thought my sig would come in handy for translation.
"We are Microsoft. You shall be assimilated. Competition is futile."
It depends on whether you want IMAP or POP. But I would look at pobox.com or hosted.us. --Sam
Is how long I have had my yahoo account. If microsoft takes it over I will stop using it and have it deleted.
http://email.about.com/od/freeemailreviews/tp/free_email.htm/ list 14 free email hosting providers, although y! is on there twice (new and classic)
-- Viva FreeBSD --
The problem here is that there are many open source projects that are now under yahoo license such as Zimbra:
Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS) source code is licensed under the terms of the Yahoo! Public License (YPL). YPL requires that any modifications to the ZCS source code files that you redistribute outside of your organization be published for all in source code form. YPL also requires the preservation of all copyright and attribution notices within modified versions of the ZCS Open Source Edition.
So all changes that people all over the world have made to Zimbra does now belong to Yahoo, when bought by Microsoft these terms will go to Microsoft - so everything everybody made is now copyrighted by Microsoft... If the deal goes through...
Things such as this must be considered - Zimbra is one of the big Open alternatives to MS Exchange server, and it is obvious this is a move for less competition, not more. These sort of details may result in the merger being rejected by EU or US. Yahoo might loose more money from first throwing in the towel then get into the legal battles related with the merger - which may result in Yahoo on their own now without internal thrust, nor money for the share holders... In fact they could likely be much more hurt by the merger attempt...
I do not use Microsoft software products.
I do not use Microsoft web services; instant messenger, video sharing, social networking, Windows update, maps/directions, search, whatever their version of Google Earth is called, etc.
I do not write software using, or that makes use of, Microsoft technology.
-----
I have purchased a premium e-mail account from Yahoo!
I have purchased a Yahoo! personals account.
I do write software using the YUI (Yahoo! User Interface) framework.
-----
If Yahoo! becomes a part of Microsoft, you will lose me as a customer and a partner.
I will cancel all my accounts with Yahoo!
I will migrate to a different software framework.
I will encourage others to do the same.
-----
You do not need to know who I am; you only need to know that I represent many of your target demographics.
Don't be stupid.
At least it should be obvious why HotMail is not an option - it is controlled by Microsoft. Microsoft having provided many examples of being untrustworthy, Google's GMail!, was an after thought, but basically Having my email & searching with the same company gives them way too much power in the world (not that my email is that significant...) - also their advertising is a bit too intrusive in email. -Nivag
Microsoft wants yahoo for it's user base and technology. Which is moot. The moment such a take over is completed, yahoo user base crumbles as people leave.
For example,
Flickr usage will drop dramatically. Some might remain, millions leave.
Yahoo! Groups groups will be deleted in the thousands.
And Yahoo! Mail usage will end since it just migrate to Hotmail, which no one will use or uses now.
myYahoo! portal users to 0 since no one wants to use Live.com because it is a shitty portal
In the end, Takeover of yahoo by Microsoft will waste billions of money and will be moot.
I, for one, plan to leave Yahoo and will request account termination if such a deal is accepted by Yahoo.
\
I can see this now. Microsoft's idea of taking the buyout issue straight to the Yahoo shareholders is really saying; "we're sending Guido, Marko, and Tony "Bullets" Kelly out to each of the residences of the shareholders and forcing them to sign agreements releasing their shares to Microsoft... or else!
Next thing you know, Microsoft will have advertising like; "Yahoo mail. We; at Microsoft invented Internet mail much like the rest of the Interet! Now we can improve Yahoo mail!"
I'll be shuttin' down my Yahoo account then.
All content in this message is copyright (c) 2008. All rights reserved. RIAA is prohibited here.
Microsoft must be real desperate for getting Yahoo to theirselves. Funny thing is that there is no one to stop them if the stockholders will sell.
We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your company. We will add your userbase and products to our own. Your services will adapt to serve the Windows Live collective. Resistance is futile. -Ballmer of borg
It wouldn't break my heart one bit to see a "d!rty b0mb!" go off on the Redmond campus while Balmer is present!
They have to write a new OS that doesnt suck and that everyone doesnt hate. They have it set to release in '09. They better have some people that can write code that doesnt look like the equivalent of dead rotten stinky meat or rotten putred vommit and poop. This is there last chance to produce something that business wont cringe over and that the average public would buy without guilt and remorse. Apple is already taking them to the chopping block so they better do something or get out and go into another business.
YPL also requires the preservation of all copyright and attribution notices within modified versions of the ZCS Open Source Edition.
You should have bolded this part. I skimmed over it twice before it hit me how much it means.
What the hell does Yahoo have that MS wants so badly?
Zimbra is the significant viable competition to Exchange, which is Microsoft's stranglehold on 'enterprise' computing. This group would like the government to stop the deal on anti-competitiveness grounds.
I think Yahoo! knew what would happen when they bought Zimbra and they know how important it is ($$$) for Microsoft to own it.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
The price of yahoo has already adjusted for the possible buyout. If there is any more adjustment to be made, it will made Monday morning - not when the actual buyout occurs.
This news will probably cause a price spike Monday morning. Smart traders may sell on the spike up - that way, they win either way.
Everybody on Wall street knows that you buy on the rumor, and sell on the news. The *rumor* of this merger is helpful is helpful to traders, but long term, the actual merger may not be helpful at all.
I was about to ask the same question. I use mail, tv, weather, movies, and maps on yahoo all the time. I will not be using any of these any longer if MS buys them. Who do I email to let them know this?
Warning: Apple/Nintendo fangirl. Likes her electronics cute & cuddly. May be rabid.