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Microsoft Crosses The Line

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Re: Microsoft Crosses The Line

#11

Post by gizmo »

bigbang wrote: post #6
raganwald wrote: post #2

Microsoft/Ballmer's behaviour has been entirely consistent with their reputation as take-no-prisoners bullies. Bullying is all about destroying and humiliating people. It is all about intimidating a crowd of people by making an example of someone. I seriously doubt anyone, even Microsoft shareholders, are cheering Ballmer on. Actually, I revise this: I especially doubt Microsoft shareholders are cheering Ballmer on.…

The bullying by Ballmer and co, is 1.Throw the current board out bcos it didnt agree with MS. The current board can be thrown by MS by telling that there is a chance that they come back, so shareholders will vote for Carl. 2.Grab Yahoo for even cheaper as with Carl on board there is no other option for growth other than by selling.

No, the board should be thrown out because it acted against the wishes of the shareholders. And in a public company the shareholders are king. Ballmer has nothing to do with this. Carl is in it for the money - so he probably wants to chop the company up.

Re: Microsoft Crosses The Line

#12

Post by gruseom »

byrneseyeview wrote: post #8

"Since then, Yahoo has quite literally prostrated themselves before Microsoft to get a merger done, even perhaps at a price much lower than Microsoft’s original bid." You know, I thought this was an error. But look! "Pronunciation IPA: /ˈlɪtəɹəli/, SAMPA: /"lIt@r@li/ 1. In the direct, word for word sense. With neither idiom nor metaphor. "When my sewing kit fell off of the barn loft, I literally had to look for a nee…

Heh, that's good. What other words mean both X and the exact opposite of X?

Re: Microsoft Crosses The Line

#14

Post by gizmo »

TweedHeads wrote: post #3

I still can't believe how ballmer is the head of microsoft, all he brings to the company is embarrassment and failure, not a single victory in a decade. Any resemblance to our president is just a mere coincidence.

Ballmer and gates are both extremes. Gates always wasted heaps of money, starting up projects and killing them again... have different groups build the same software (then kill the least successful project)... buy companies on a whim, and so on. Being wasteful is not the end of the world if your revenue grows with 500% each year, but it doesn't make the shareholders happy.

So with this tactic Microsoft started to dominate every field in software. At that point the waste started to add up so Gates got Ballmer to clean it up. And when Ballmer became CEO he did cut the waste and made MS tremendously profitable. A great accomplishment. However, now it's time (and has been for a few years) for somebody technical to take charge again.

Re: Microsoft Crosses The Line

#15

Post by byrneseyeview »

gruseom wrote: post #12
byrneseyeview wrote: post #8

"Since then, Yahoo has quite literally prostrated themselves before Microsoft to get a merger done, even perhaps at a price much lower than Microsoft’s original bid." You know, I thought this was an error. But look! "Pronunciation IPA: /ˈlɪtəɹəli/, SAMPA: /"lIt@r@li/ 1. In the direct, word for word sense. With neither idiom nor metaphor. "When my sewing kit fell off of the barn loft, I literally had to look for a nee…

Heh, that's good. What other words mean both X and the exact opposite of X?

We have formed an oversight committee to avoid repeating that egregious oversight.

Edit: Here's a collection! http://www-personal.umich.edu/~cellis/antagonym.html

Re: Microsoft Crosses The Line

#16

Post by gizmo »

LogicHoleFlaw wrote: post #10

My knowledge of business at this level is incomplete. What would be the implications of replacing Yahoo's board of directors?

Depends on the people you appoint.

If you get a combination of technical people and business people who both want Yahoo to thrive as an underdog all will be good. Yahoo will stay independent and will probably do some great things in the next few years. Without Yang the new board will have to prove itself, so you can expect the new board to spend a lot of money in research/acquisitions. When a company is fighting for its survival you can expect great things to happen. So with a new board Yahoo will have to innovate and surprise us all.

If you appoint people for one purpose (selling the company), then that's exactly what will happen. Because the purpose of a merger between Microsoft and Yahoo is (partially) an "increase in operational efficiency" Ballmer will definitely get rid of thousands of jobs (= save money). Therefore, before the merger happens a lot of good people will leave (for google) and a lot of mediocre people don't want to wait for the axe to fall. The stock would normally crash as a result, but the promise of MS buying Yahoo will keep it reasonably healthy. (If MS walks away after the board is changed Yahoo is fucked.) So MS buys Yahoo, the shareholders and board of directors get their money and wall street is happy. Ballmer will start handing out pink slips and save billions. MS shareholders will be very happy.

So in the short term the MS-Yahoo deal works out for everybody. MS and Yahoo shareholders get more money and a lot of waste is cut out of Yahoo. Okay, it doesn't work out for the employees who become redundant, but that's to be expected. On the long term it doesn't look so great. The merger will make it even harder for MS to adapt to changes as it becomes even bigger, and squabbles within MS will make it harder to get anything done for everybody.

The entire deal is basically a short-term versus long-term issue. Either you want to cash out now (and sell Yahoo) or you want to wait it out and hope things get better. Yang, as one of the founders, thinks long term and stays positive. Investors and shareholders, by their very nature, think short term. Hence the conflict.

Re: Microsoft Crosses The Line

#17

Post by bockris »

gruseom wrote: post #12
byrneseyeview wrote: post #8

"Since then, Yahoo has quite literally prostrated themselves before Microsoft to get a merger done, even perhaps at a price much lower than Microsoft’s original bid." You know, I thought this was an error. But look! "Pronunciation IPA: /ˈlɪtəɹəli/, SAMPA: /"lIt@r@li/ 1. In the direct, word for word sense. With neither idiom nor metaphor. "When my sewing kit fell off of the barn loft, I literally had to look for a nee…

Heh, that's good. What other words mean both X and the exact opposite of X?

'cleave' is always the one I remember.

http://www.fun-with-words.com/nym_autoantonyms.html

and

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~cellis/antagonym.html

Re: Microsoft Crosses The Line

#18

Post by raganwald »

bigbang wrote: post #6
raganwald wrote: post #2

Microsoft/Ballmer's behaviour has been entirely consistent with their reputation as take-no-prisoners bullies. Bullying is all about destroying and humiliating people. It is all about intimidating a crowd of people by making an example of someone. I seriously doubt anyone, even Microsoft shareholders, are cheering Ballmer on. Actually, I revise this: I especially doubt Microsoft shareholders are cheering Ballmer on.…

The bullying by Ballmer and co, is 1.Throw the current board out bcos it didnt agree with MS. The current board can be thrown by MS by telling that there is a chance that they come back, so shareholders will vote for Carl. 2.Grab Yahoo for even cheaper as with Carl on board there is no other option for growth other than by selling.

While I agree with your 1-2-3 analysis, my thesis here is that given the choice between (a) negotiate with Yahoo now and (b) tamper with Yahoo's board and negotiate with them later, option (a) gives Microsoft the most. Yes, they will pay much less later when they have gotten rid of everyone who considers independence an options, but they will also have watched the talent and customers walk out the door.

The price may be falling over time, but I conjecture the value is falling even faster.

Re: Microsoft Crosses The Line

#20

Post by mattmaroon »

byrneseyeview wrote: post #8

"Since then, Yahoo has quite literally prostrated themselves before Microsoft to get a merger done, even perhaps at a price much lower than Microsoft’s original bid." You know, I thought this was an error. But look! "Pronunciation IPA: /ˈlɪtəɹəli/, SAMPA: /"lIt@r@li/ 1. In the direct, word for word sense. With neither idiom nor metaphor. "When my sewing kit fell off of the barn loft, I literally had to look for a nee…

TechCrunch is in dire need of a copy editor. I'm pretty sure everyone who writes there simply types their article into Wordpress and clicks publish. Even typing into MS Word first would help, since the built in grammar checker would catch a nice chunk of them.
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