Google flipped the bird at the conventional wisdom, and unlike Yahoo and post 1999 Microsoft, didn’t put “adult supervision” and “business people” in charge.
PhD nerds run it, and PhD nerddom is the rule.
Looks like nerds are better at business than businessmen are at nerding.
ROTFLMAO 😎
I needed that. I have had more problems than I can talk about, trying to explain the products that the company I work for makes, to the “adult supervision”. When I see the the “adult supervision” getting into arguments about parking space, corner office, view, size of office, etc.. I ask myself.. what “adult supervision”? Would Ballmer be considered “adult supervision”?
My take on the acquisition: Microsoft is trying to take out competition. Both Yahoo and Microsoft(through MSN.com) offer much of the same: finance, search, mail.. etc. There is no synergy in this merger because the acquisition does not add any functionality to msn.com that doesn’t already exist at msn.com. The corporate cultures are much different between msn.com and yahoo.com. I also think this will happen much the same way the ‘hotmail.com’ scenario went down.. with Microsofting of the product driving people away(and the related questions of why it doesn’t run on a Microsoft platform, the problems and costs in getting it onto a Microsoft platform). I anticipate Microsoft having to write down a large portion of the purchase to a loss.
It is also important to remember that with advertising (where both msn.com and yahoo.com), combining them into one will not increase total revenue because advertisers are presently buying space on both msn.com and yahoo.com to ensure coverage. If they combine, one only has to buy from one.
What should really happen: Microsoft to return excess cash to investors as a dividend. Spend money on improving MSN portal. Realize that eye-candy does not make a good portal.
This is not likely to happen, and Yahoo will probably sell out. This is one that anti-trust laws might apply because it reduces existing competition and there is no synergy in the merger… but then we also know that those people are currently asleep at the wheel.
