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Microsoft Just Can't Quit Yahoo
itwbennett writes "Back in October, rumors surfaced (and then quickly subsided) that Microsoft was considering another bid to purchase Yahoo. Now the rumors are back, and this time Microsoft is said to be in talks with other prospective buyers about some kind of partnership to acquire the troubled Internet company."
Perhaps I can buy Yahoo. On second thought, that's probably too steep.
Yahoo does have some value to Microsoft. Its news, weather, and finance services are widely used. Users of those services overlap with Microsoft's customer base, and are good advertising targets for the things Microsoft sells.
Apple is the company that should buy them, and use iOS & Lion to do w/ them what WP7 does w/ Bing and Android does w/ Google. That's the only buyer that makes sense. Otherwise, which Yahoo! services are so valuable to make it worth adding another redundant search engine to the ones they already have? Hotjobs? Yahoo! Groups? Which ones?
Microsoft would just be buying Yahoo's users.
Which is a shame, because yahoo voice chat was the best trolling on the internet. There was a bug where, if you got ignored, you could simply leave the room and come back. Those who ignored you couldn't see your posts, but they could hear your audio.
My drunken friends and I spent many a night trolling the Christian chat rooms with pornographic recordings. Here's how we'd do it:
First, every Christian chat room had its own resident loudmouth who would spout bible verses all night without relinquishing the mic. We would get him off by starting a feedback loop, placing our microphone directly in front of our speakers, causing the feedback to be fed through the windbag's speakers into his mic. The feedback would be so horrible that the guy would get off the mic.
Next, with our mic at our speakers, we would play pornographic audio snippets from porn movies. The whole room would be exposed to those awful recordings and stir up into a frenzy of anger and disgust("I have kids in here listening to this with me!") and we would sit back and laugh, porn blaring, as they ignored us one by one. Then, thanks to the aforementioned bug, we'd leave the room and go back in.
The best part was when some asshole tried to grab the mic and wouldn't relinquish it, but he wouldn't turn his speakers down so even if the whole room had ignored us, our porno-audio was still going through his speakers, into his mic, and being fed back into the room. Since he was so desperate to keep control of the mic, he lost either way, and the room was forced to hear pornographic audio.
Finally, they would get smart and turn their speakers off. Then the person on the mic would start singing while the rest of the chat room fumed and ranted around him. It's like when a kid hears something he doesn't want to, cups his hands over his ears, and goes, "la-la-la-la-LAAAAAA."
It was classic.
If Microsoft bought Yahoo! would there be a mass exodus of Yahoo! users to Google services? People who just don't want to deal with Microsoft. Plus, hasn't Yahoo! been losing money hand over fist for the last few years. Why spend billions on something which had it's heyday and can't turn a buck?
Given Yahoo's foray into the media business, I seriously wonder what the benefit to Microsoft is?
Somehow I don't see Microsoft getting into the media business and while their online services have been hit-and-miss in the past, it isn't like Yahoo is going to bring anything of value to their online platform.
If you look at their quarterly reports Yahoo is quite profitable actually, and they are still the third most used website on the internet. In terms of user minutes they trail only slightly behind Facebook (#1) and Google (#2).
Additionally, their patents have separate value that can be quite powerful if used offensively, as all the smartphone manufacturers are doing now.
Yahoo! should merge with Ask, AOL, and Lycos. They could call themselves That 90's Web Company.
...it's all about the patents that Yahoo! owns.
A co-worker of mine is leaving to join Yahoo on Monday. He was told yesterday that within three months he will be a Microsoft Employee. He is not best pleased as he is an Open Source devotee. He is talking with a lawyer today to see if he can walk out of the contract.
I talked to an Analyst yesterday and he says that MS are getting Yahoo on the cheal. Like $1B cheap. The rest of the money is coming from Microsoft's usual investment partners, Silverlake Capital and a Canadian company(forgot the name at the moment).
I think the model for this is the MS/Nokia deal. From my pals at Nokia, it seems that MS rules in everything but name. Many of the very scandinavian working practices are slated for being consigned to the history books.
Yahoo is interesting because it offers up categories of things, no? I just Google, so I have no clue. Google has more than enough to absorb my time and world.
Watch Google bid it up..lol.
Take the Red Pill.
Partnering with Microsoft is a poisoned chalice. Look what they did to Novell.
I feel the same way... and I'm not even looking to work at Yahoo.. I just need to move my mail away. I'm pissed that Microsoft will have access to my archived mail and know more about me than I do.
Doesn't Yahoo delete your mail a few months after you do it?
If the reference is that Microsoft wants to sodomize Yahoo ala Jake Gyllenhaal's gay cowboy character then sir I offer you a hearty golf clap indeed.
If you mod me down the terrorists will have won
Post.
Also yahoo isnt that bad of a company. I get the feeling that they think it will add some more "not google" market share.
And thats fine by me.
I'd prefer it to also be "not Microsoft".
Every time Microsoft tries to buy Yahoo and then changes it's mind, Yahoo's stock value plunges. Do this enough times and eventually they can pick up Yahoo for pocket change.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Post.
Also yahoo isnt that bad of a company. I get the feeling that they think it will add some more "not google" market share.
And thats fine by me.
I'd prefer it to also be "not Microsoft".
At this stage, "not Google" is as important as "not Apple" and rather more important than "not Microsoft".
Microsoft were/are evil (I've lost track) because they had a monopoly, it wasn't the fact that Microsoft were evil and just happened to have a monopoly on desktop OS as well.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
OK so you are going with the second option of saying that the Muslims should have a turn at being murderous uncivilised barbarians.
And you've gone with the first option of actually being retarded - christian style.
Nowhere did I say they should be allowed that. I only think christians and jews should stop being so sanctimonious having (not even really completely) just only become "civilised". And stop shoving their way of life down everyone's throats.
Upward mobility is a slippery slope - the higher you climb the more you show your ass.
Sure, and I'm sure Jooooos & Xtians have all the baggage like honor killings, FGMs, jihad violence against infidels, beheadings, conviction of raped women on adultery charges, and a whole lot more! One more of the 'there are no differences' bullshi'ite!
The vast majority of Muslims do not believe in or support those things. It's like saying that all Christians are fundamentalist nutjobs who think the world is 6000 years old and homosexuality is a sin that should be punished by stoning because it says it in the Bible somewhere.
The supernatural elements of Islam are virtually identical with Christianity anyway. Again, it depends how literally you want to take them, but if you believe in a single omnipotent god, whether you call him God or Allah is irrelevant.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
I expect you are talking about fighting Muslim terrorists who started it, which should be allowed.
The logical error that Bush and Blair made was to say that because the 9/11 terrorists were Muslim, therefore all Muslims are terrorists, therefore we are entitled to invade Iraq and Afghanistan because they have Muslim governments we don't like with some sort of tenuous link to Al Qaida.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
it is better for Muslim countries to be controlled by a dictator than by an Islamic theocracy.
Yeah, why should they have their own version of democracy, the fucking foreign bastards?
We know best, and it was rather unsporting of the so-called "democratic protesters" in the Arab Spring to get rid of some good friends of the West.
The next thing you know, Johnny Foreigner will be wanting to control his own country's economic resources!
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
OK so you are going with the second option of saying that the Muslims should have a turn at being murderous uncivilised barbarians.
And you've gone with the first option of actually being retarded - christian style.
I can see that not having an answer you resort to insults. You are wrong on all counts here because I am not a Christian.
Nowhere did I say they should be allowed that. I only think christians and jews should stop being so sanctimonious having (not even really completely) just only become "civilised". And stop shoving their way of life down everyone's throats.
Funny way to tell them not to be sanctimonious (which I agree they often are) - by saying that we should "give the muslims a few centuries to become civilized".
The people who commit "honour killings" do so because of tribal cultural traditions which predate Islam and have survived due to poverty and lack of education. Most Muslims from more advanced/civilized countries would condemn them outright.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
The people who commit "honour killings" do so because of tribal cultural traditions which predate Islam and have survived due to poverty and lack of education. Most Muslims from more advanced/civilized countries would condemn them outright.
Yes that's why there are dozens of honour killings by Muslims in the UK each year". And before you try the "they're not all Muslim" thing, there have been many dozen Muslim honour killings, one Christian, one Hindu and a few Sikh
I think you have that exactly backwards: microsoft had a "monopoly" because they are evil.
Which may or may not be true, but the OP was singling out Muslims.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
They are still trying to beat everyone at their own games instead of coming up with something interesting themselves. An infusion of 273.1 million faithful users from the second largest email provider would help them lock people into their Windows Live! infrastructure (email, phones, OS, cloud services)
After buying Yahoo, it is rumored that Microsoft plans to buy Myspace, Pets.com, and the patent rights to Betamax.
Proverbs 21:19
Albigensian Crusades, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Crusades. The inquisition, The Spanish Inquisition.....All horrid atrocities that will make you question if the people who really did those things were human beings.
I object to power without constructive purpose. --Spock
"Billions in the bank" does not equal, nor is it a prerequisite for, evil. But then again, I am not an ms shill like you.
i really like my yahoo email address. i would HATE for it to be crapped up my microsoft.