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Microsoft's Impatience is a Good Thing

Word around the campfire is that Microsoft is starting to get a bit impatient with Yahoo! That's a good thing, from where I'm sitting.

A report from Todd Bishop's Microsoft Blog (on the Seattle Post-Intelligencer Web site) has the details, from an unnamed source.

Microsoft is evaluating its Yahoo acquisition bid under the theory that the Internet company may have lost value since the $44.6 billion offer was made, according to a Reuters report this afternoon, citing an anonymous source. The Associated Press has a similar report, and I was separately able to confirm the same thing with a person familiar with the situation, who asked not to be identified.

I don't see this as a Bad Thing. Not because "Microsoft is evil," but simply because I can't see anything really good coming out of a Microsoft/Yahoo! merger.

In particular, as Jeremy Zawodny points out, Yahoo! has a culture that's open, and a long tradition of openness:

We've been on the openness road for a long, long time at Yahoo. And we take it rather seriously. Some times it hasn't been as visible as others, but believe me, the trend is quite clear when you look at all the data. The Open Source adoption and work. The APIs. The way we communicate with users and partners. The Blogs. The RSS feeds.

I'd really hate to see that culture overcome by Microsoft's traditionally non-open culture, which seems to be a very likely outcome of any merger of the two companies.

Yahoo! may not be an open source company as we traditionally think of open source companies -- not like MySQL, for instance -- but it consumes a lot of open source software, and it contributes back to those communities in turn. I suspect Yahoo's use (and subsequent contribution) to FreeBSD and PHP (for instance) would seriously decrease if the company were absorbed into Microsoft.

Do you think a Microsoft acquisition of the company would hurt its open source synergies? 

• yahoo
• bsd
• merger
• php

by an anonymous user on Apr. 07, 2008

I don't see how its a "good" thing??? A deal is inevitable and Microsoft's impatience is only going to aggravate the situation (i.e. a hostile bid), potentially resulting in a more aggressive path/timeframe to "non-openness".

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by an anonymous user on Apr. 07, 2008

Yahoo! should take their company PRIVATE. They are an invaluable asset to the quasi-open source community. Being a public company forces you to invariably profit maximize; a very different thing from innovating.

Yahoo! just needs to refocus their effort towards being a content provider (which they do well at). Open up search or outsource to Google.

Microsoft is like the World Wide Web plague. Please don't ruin another valuable (beyond $'s) web property.

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by an anonymous user on Apr. 08, 2008

Why is everyone making this about Open Source? Open Source is just a means to an end for Yahoo! and there's $40 Billion at stake here - hard earned money for the millions of shareholders who have been patiently watching Yahoo erode value for the last several years. So, this is NOT ABOUT OPEN SOURCE! Why is Microhoo so bad?? Google is essentially a monopoly in the search, online advertising space and we all know how disastrous that is for business...

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by an anonymous user on Apr. 09, 2008

Google is far from disastrous for business. Entrepreneurs have greatly benefited from Google and their developer and commerce-friendly products. Google also helps promote the best PC browser; (Open Source) Firefox.

It's time for Microsoft to concede they are finally losing their strangle hold on the market and have completely failed to compete in the Web 2.0. As far as "shareholders... hard earned money... patiently waiting", thats simply ludicrous. Whoever wanted out, should have sold when MS made the initial bid. MSFT isn't going anywhere...

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