MicroYahoo!

[Carl Ford]

I love this merger. But a lot of Tech is against it. Is this San Josejudice. Prejudice against Redmond? Or are there legimate concerns. I scoffed at Hotmail. And they did that well. I have a rough time believing that Microsoft cant shed management and get economies of scale, gain search market share, and integrate better.

Are there any real gotcha's? Stockwise, I can't see a road block, so why all the noise now?

[Gadi Tamari]

no it's a bad idea in my opinion UNLESS they buy them and let them operate with no interference; if they merge them as a unit inside MS they will die.

Microsoft, with all due respect, is a cluster of technology start up, with no real understanding of the application market; therefore they can not and should not compete with the likes of Google, Yahoo, Ebay, AOL as well as the social networks - Facebook, Myspace, etc.

[Todd Comins]

If Microsoft, like Google, has come to the belief that the web is the operating system, then what choice does Microsoft have? There are more mobile devices than PCs. The growth of mobile devices is at least double that of PCs.

Isn't it then clear that:

1) there is a need for an open network for mobile devices to achieve their
full potential (for that network to become the OS for mobile devices)?

2) a standard platform, aka Android (the equivalent of the PC for the web),
is needed in order for mobile applications and the network (the OS) to flourish.

As near as I can tell Google is excuting a strategy. Microsoft appears to be developing one. Google will continue to make money on web services, and will make lots more of it as mobile reaches its full potential. Web services/applications will thrive.

Its compete or become irrelevant (grow or die). Can Yahoo or Microsoft go it alone against Google and win? Perhaps Microsoft doesn't think so.

[Anatoli Levine]

I personally do think that negative feeling towards Microsoft plays a role. I do like Yahoo and use lot's of it's services at will - from Microsoft, I use only what I have to ( and will make an effort to avoid using Microsoft tools/services if viable alternative available). So I do think that this plays substantial role in the overall "feeling' towards this move.

As far as roadblocks are concerned, I also don't see many - my major concern if Yahoo! will still be able to stay the Yahoo! we love...

[Todd Comins]

Much of the negativity towards Microsoft has been due to weak competition with respect to the desktop. Let's hope the same thing doesn't occur in the mobile space, particularly when there is an oppotunity for open competition.

I'm personally not negative about Microsoft competing here. To the contrary, OPEN competition is a good thing. I believe that Microsoft is playing catch-up in this instance and it will have difficulty in establishing as strong a position as it has in the desktop.

Ultimately, we (the consumers) will decide to support open solutions by rewarding vendors with our hard-earned dollars, or not. It is our choice, isn't it?