We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile.
OK, so they've made a hostile bid. What are the chances of Microsoft succeeding in its acquisition attempts? This isn't a subject I know much (or anything) about?
OK, so they've made a hostile bid. What are the chances of Microsoft succeeding in its acquisition attempts? This isn't a subject I know much (or anything) about?
If yahoo is bought out by Microsoft, though i'd think the government would have issues with this... it's only a matter of time before they make Flickr a mess, just as they've made Hotmail into crap... grrr
The government? What government? Our administration is more concerned with oil and war profits. They don't give a damn about anti-trust, corporate abuse, home-loan scams, or anything else as long as they continue to get richer. Sorry to be blunt but I haven't seen anything being fixed anywhere in the world to do with monopolies. In fact last time I checked, we are going backwards with AT&T buying back the empire they lost when the government DID actually care.
What companies have MS run into the ground? And why do people see this as a horrible thing?
Haven't you noticed that this website is full of AppleFanboyzngirlz that simply refuse to discuss anything related to Microsoft in a mature discussion? They will call you a troll and curse your first borne- so watch out!
Haven't you noticed that this website is full of AppleFanboyzngirlz that simply refuse to discuss anything related to Microsoft in a mature discussion? They will call you a troll and curse your first borne- so watch out!
There are some reasonable minds here. Quite a few actually.
Eventually you'll learn to block out the fanboi stuff. It happens everywhere.
Hotmail, for one - it was the most popular internet email client before they bought it.
Looking through their history on wikipedia, they have actually bought fewer companies than I thought - but every business that they have entered (except windows and office) has been a dismal failure (including xbox, at least from a financial perspective).
Hotmail still exists and a lot of people use it.
Xbox has made a profit, it isn't a dismal failure. You forgot about IE and a few others as well.
Haven't you noticed that this website is full of AppleFanboyzngirlz that simply refuse to discuss anything related to Microsoft in a mature discussion? They will call you a troll and curse your first borne- so watch out!
No, I know this. I'm just responding to their message with logic and seeing what they respond with.
Haven't you noticed that this website is full of AppleFanboyzngirlz that simply refuse to discuss anything related to Microsoft in a mature discussion? They will call you a troll and curse your first borne- so watch out!
Yeah. And thank God you were here to elevate the intellectual tone of the discussion with a little name calling.
I think it's funny when people come to Apple enthusiast sites then complain that the people are all Apple enthusiasts!
Microsoft was a great partner of Apple in the early '80s following the introduction of the Macintosh, introducing Excel and Word into a world dominated by Lotus 123 and Word Perfect/Word Star. All was fine until Microsoft developed a graphical interface for DOS by blatantly copying the Mac's interface, tweaking here and there to legally get away with it. That soured a log of Mac customers on Microsoft, which continues to this day.
Since then, Microsoft has used its monopoly power to acquire other companies to enhance its portfolio, but has seldom improved upon the quality of its acquisitions, leaving observers to wonder exactly what Microsoft was good at, besides making money. If that's all that matters, they've been a great company, but some of us want value in products we purchase beyond mere functionality. That's why we stick with Apple, and why we're Mac enthusiasts.
I too wonder exactly what added value Microsoft will bring to this new acquisition. The good folks at Yahoo! started great, but have been faltering a bit, at least compared to Google. Besides a financial infusion, what will Microsoft bring to this party? We'll have to wait to see if it gets bolted on to Vista, or merely repackaged as some new Microsoft service.
Another reason that this will fail is that windows is the OS for losers, and most competent tech people hate Microsoft. I'm sure that Yahoo will have an exodus of their best and brightest if this happens, including a lot of BSD folks.
Interesting point. I d not thought of that. Dont Yahoo put a lot into FreeBSD - I know they host the project on thier servers, I suspect a lot of their people do development on it too. most of Yahoos servers run on FreeBSD.
Looking through their history on wikipedia, they have actually bought fewer companies than I thought
Why buy a company when you can steal their ideas and sell them as your own "innovation" for free. You won't have any problem finding a history of that with Microsoft ... and they're good at it!
As others have also said, they're also good at buying companies and running them into the ground. Yahoo is toast if Microsoft gets their hands on them.
Let me get this straight. Yahoo, who is not doing too well in the search market (28% share and falling), is going to be acquired by Microsoft, who is doing even worse than Yahoo (7% share and falling), and Microsoft thinks they'll turn around things by taking the helm of the merged entity?
The mediocre and the incompetent merge and with the incompetent taking control? Oh this is going to be a lovely ride.
A quick buck for Yahoo stockholders, the shaft for MS holders.
Xbox has made a profit, it isn't a dismal failure. You forgot about IE and a few others as well.
One or two quarters of profits does not erase the $6 billion or so total losses to date ($9 billion including lost interest that they would have earned had they not lost the $6 billion). The xbox division was a financial mistake, and it will never make enough money to justify the sunk cost.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MacTel
Yeah, no doubt. There goes their savings account. It will take a few quarters for M$ to save that amount again.
Microsoft has a net income of $16B/year, so it will actually take them three years to recover. Maybe more, because they won't be getting interest on the cash part of the yahoo buyout anymore. [edit - it looks like "levered free cash flow" is the important statistic, because that is what they get free after taxes, debt, and operating expenses are paid. The combined company will have $14 billion in levered free cash flow, so it will take 3.25 years, or 5-6 years if you count opportunity cost of the lost interest payments]
Don't get me wrong, I am happy about this move - but I am happy about it because I hate Microsoft, not because I think it will be good for them. This will beat out TimeWarner/AOL and Daimler/Chrisler for the #1 spot on the bonehead merger list.
For anyone narrow enough to think it's only "Apple fanboys" who might be upset at this idea, here's a post from ArsTechnica, by "dougoftheabaci". I don't know this person, but his sentiments seem to have nothing to do with Apple.
Quote:
Why would it be bad? As a web designer and developer I can think of a big reason. One a lot of people forget... Microsoft has done NOTHING that has helped the net, quite the opposite. One of the best resources for developer frameworks is from Yahoo right now, it's great. The Yahoo User Interface library gives you great source for making better websites.
What happened last time Microsoft did something for the net? IE7. Oh, did I mention SilverLight? Microsoft has a policy of, "Yes, we know there are industry standards that do that... But we don't own the rights to them. Therefore we make our own."
I for one home Yahoo isn't bought. I'd hate to be left with only Google as a decent web portal... Because, let's face it, MSN is officially a joke.
Comments
Can anyone fill in some of the gaps?
OK, so they've made a hostile bid. What are the chances of Microsoft succeeding in its acquisition attempts? This isn't a subject I know much (or anything) about?
Can anyone fill in some of the gaps?
FWIW, here is one person's view on the subject.
Like you I wonder how this will turn out and if (how?) this affects Apple's relationship with Google.
If yahoo is bought out by Microsoft, though i'd think the government would have issues with this... it's only a matter of time before they make Flickr a mess, just as they've made Hotmail into crap... grrr
The government? What government? Our administration is more concerned with oil and war profits. They don't give a damn about anti-trust, corporate abuse, home-loan scams, or anything else as long as they continue to get richer. Sorry to be blunt but I haven't seen anything being fixed anywhere in the world to do with monopolies. In fact last time I checked, we are going backwards with AT&T buying back the empire they lost when the government DID actually care.
What companies have MS run into the ground? And why do people see this as a horrible thing?
Haven't you noticed that this website is full of AppleFanboyzngirlz that simply refuse to discuss anything related to Microsoft in a mature discussion? They will call you a troll and curse your first borne- so watch out!
Haven't you noticed that this website is full of AppleFanboyzngirlz that simply refuse to discuss anything related to Microsoft in a mature discussion? They will call you a troll and curse your first borne- so watch out!
There are some reasonable minds here. Quite a few actually.
Eventually you'll learn to block out the fanboi stuff. It happens everywhere.
Hotmail, for one - it was the most popular internet email client before they bought it.
Looking through their history on wikipedia, they have actually bought fewer companies than I thought - but every business that they have entered (except windows and office) has been a dismal failure (including xbox, at least from a financial perspective).
Hotmail still exists and a lot of people use it.
Xbox has made a profit, it isn't a dismal failure. You forgot about IE and a few others as well.
Haven't you noticed that this website is full of AppleFanboyzngirlz that simply refuse to discuss anything related to Microsoft in a mature discussion? They will call you a troll and curse your first borne- so watch out!
No, I know this. I'm just responding to their message with logic and seeing what they respond with.
Another year, another company for Microsoft to run into the ground. Maybe its time to buy Google.
Yeah, no doubt. There goes their savings account. It will take a few quarters for M$ to save that amount again.
Haven't you noticed that this website is full of AppleFanboyzngirlz that simply refuse to discuss anything related to Microsoft in a mature discussion? They will call you a troll and curse your first borne- so watch out!
Yeah. And thank God you were here to elevate the intellectual tone of the discussion with a little name calling.
Hotmail still exists and a lot of people use it.
.
Only spammers LMAO
I think it's funny when people come to Apple enthusiast sites then complain that the people are all Apple enthusiasts!
Microsoft was a great partner of Apple in the early '80s following the introduction of the Macintosh, introducing Excel and Word into a world dominated by Lotus 123 and Word Perfect/Word Star. All was fine until Microsoft developed a graphical interface for DOS by blatantly copying the Mac's interface, tweaking here and there to legally get away with it. That soured a log of Mac customers on Microsoft, which continues to this day.
Since then, Microsoft has used its monopoly power to acquire other companies to enhance its portfolio, but has seldom improved upon the quality of its acquisitions, leaving observers to wonder exactly what Microsoft was good at, besides making money. If that's all that matters, they've been a great company, but some of us want value in products we purchase beyond mere functionality. That's why we stick with Apple, and why we're Mac enthusiasts.
I too wonder exactly what added value Microsoft will bring to this new acquisition. The good folks at Yahoo! started great, but have been faltering a bit, at least compared to Google. Besides a financial infusion, what will Microsoft bring to this party? We'll have to wait to see if it gets bolted on to Vista, or merely repackaged as some new Microsoft service.
Another reason that this will fail is that windows is the OS for losers, and most competent tech people hate Microsoft. I'm sure that Yahoo will have an exodus of their best and brightest if this happens, including a lot of BSD folks.
Interesting point. I d not thought of that. Dont Yahoo put a lot into FreeBSD - I know they host the project on thier servers, I suspect a lot of their people do development on it too. most of Yahoos servers run on FreeBSD.
Hope Microsoft realizes that I'll cancel my account with Yahoo if they take over.
Looking through their history on wikipedia, they have actually bought fewer companies than I thought
Why buy a company when you can steal their ideas and sell them as your own "innovation" for free. You won't have any problem finding a history of that with Microsoft ... and they're good at it!
As others have also said, they're also good at buying companies and running them into the ground. Yahoo is toast if Microsoft gets their hands on them.
The mediocre and the incompetent merge and with the incompetent taking control? Oh this is going to be a lovely ride.
A quick buck for Yahoo stockholders, the shaft for MS holders.
Hotmail still exists and a lot of people use it.
Xbox has made a profit, it isn't a dismal failure. You forgot about IE and a few others as well.
One or two quarters of profits does not erase the $6 billion or so total losses to date ($9 billion including lost interest that they would have earned had they not lost the $6 billion). The xbox division was a financial mistake, and it will never make enough money to justify the sunk cost.
Yeah, no doubt. There goes their savings account. It will take a few quarters for M$ to save that amount again.
Microsoft has a net income of $16B/year, so it will actually take them three years to recover. Maybe more, because they won't be getting interest on the cash part of the yahoo buyout anymore. [edit - it looks like "levered free cash flow" is the important statistic, because that is what they get free after taxes, debt, and operating expenses are paid. The combined company will have $14 billion in levered free cash flow, so it will take 3.25 years, or 5-6 years if you count opportunity cost of the lost interest payments]
Don't get me wrong, I am happy about this move - but I am happy about it because I hate Microsoft, not because I think it will be good for them. This will beat out TimeWarner/AOL and Daimler/Chrisler for the #1 spot on the bonehead merger list.
Why would it be bad? As a web designer and developer I can think of a big reason. One a lot of people forget... Microsoft has done NOTHING that has helped the net, quite the opposite. One of the best resources for developer frameworks is from Yahoo right now, it's great. The Yahoo User Interface library gives you great source for making better websites.
What happened last time Microsoft did something for the net? IE7. Oh, did I mention SilverLight? Microsoft has a policy of, "Yes, we know there are industry standards that do that... But we don't own the rights to them. Therefore we make our own."
I for one home Yahoo isn't bought. I'd hate to be left with only Google as a decent web portal... Because, let's face it, MSN is officially a joke.