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Microsoft bids $44.6 billion for Yahoo

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Re: Microsoft bids $44.6 billion for Yahoo

#31

Post by patrickg-zill »

joeguilmette wrote: post #20
fauigerzigerk wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A company that's been declining for 8 quarters in a row and trades at 40 times earnings (before the Microsoft offer) is not undervalued.

it's rare to see such simple, fundamental and spot on analysis in the tech world. microsoft's bid on yahoo is a perfect illustration of why microsoft is doomed to failure. how many startups could they fund with $45 billion? 100? 200? 1000? why exactly do they want to be at the helm of a slowly dying web portal left over from the first dot com boom? i remember someone talking of microsoft and relating their situation…

Sure they could fund a lot of startups. But how would you manage 1000 startups - hire 50 in-house VCs?

Better to let former MS employees bet their own cash on startups, which MS then gets to pick and choose and buy the ones they find most interesting.

And don't write off Yahoo's presence in the Third World, like China, Philipppines, India, etc. As those economies grow Yahoo's user base there will be more valuable.

Re: Microsoft bids $44.6 billion for Yahoo

#32

Post by joeguilmette »

patrickg-zill wrote: post #31
joeguilmette wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it's rare to see such simple, fundamental and spot on analysis in the tech world. microsoft's bid on yahoo is a perfect illustration of why microsoft is doomed to failure. how many startups could they fund with $45 billion? 100? 200? 1000? why exactly do they want to be at the helm of a slowly dying web portal left over from the first dot com boom? i remember someone talking of microsoft and relating their situation…

Sure they could fund a lot of startups. But how would you manage 1000 startups - hire 50 in-house VCs? Better to let former MS employees bet their own cash on startups, which MS then gets to pick and choose and buy the ones they find most interesting. And don't write off Yahoo's presence in the Third World, like China, Philipppines, India, etc. As those economies grow Yahoo's user base there will be more valuable.

haha yea it'd be expensive. maybe $50 billion expensive.

Re: Microsoft bids $44.6 billion for Yahoo

#34

Post by DXL »

danielha wrote: post #11

I was just casually talking about this with an early ex-Yahoo yesterday. We were just pondering the possibilities for Yahoo in 2008. Holy shit -- what a coincidence. He said this: A Microsoft deal is unlikely because (when he was there) all the Yahoos hated Microsoft. If an acquisition happens, it'd be hostile and the core guys will jump ship. I nodded in agreement. But then this happens.

"Early this morning Goldman made an awfully timely call, putting out an analyst note at 3:56am PST suggesting that Microsoft should buy Yahoo -- only to freeze analyst coverage of Microsoft at 6:55 AM PST on the news that Microsoft has offered to buy Yahoo and it is providing i-banking support" http://paul.kedrosky.com/archives/2008/02/01/yahoomicrosoft....

Now that's a coincidence...

Re: Microsoft bids $44.6 billion for Yahoo

#35

Post by bkrausz »

danielha wrote: post #11

I was just casually talking about this with an early ex-Yahoo yesterday. We were just pondering the possibilities for Yahoo in 2008. Holy shit -- what a coincidence. He said this: A Microsoft deal is unlikely because (when he was there) all the Yahoos hated Microsoft. If an acquisition happens, it'd be hostile and the core guys will jump ship. I nodded in agreement. But then this happens.

As a current Yahoo I'd have to disagree, from what I've seen in my department (and the departments in my building), I don't think the company is particularly hostile to Microsoft. Plus, the stock price is so low that I think a lot of Yahoos would welcome a big change, if for nothing else then to boost their portfolio.

At the very least I'd be interested to see how Microsoft could integrate such a huge company properly. I had discussed the idea 6 months ago when the rumor began to surface, the big question (if it happens) is how the two cultures and systems would merge...I think it would take years before they would actually operate as one company.

Re: Microsoft bids $44.6 billion for Yahoo

#37

Post by alaskamiller »

bkrausz wrote: post #35
danielha wrote: post #11

I was just casually talking about this with an early ex-Yahoo yesterday. We were just pondering the possibilities for Yahoo in 2008. Holy shit -- what a coincidence. He said this: A Microsoft deal is unlikely because (when he was there) all the Yahoos hated Microsoft. If an acquisition happens, it'd be hostile and the core guys will jump ship. I nodded in agreement. But then this happens.

As a current Yahoo I'd have to disagree, from what I've seen in my department (and the departments in my building), I don't think the company is particularly hostile to Microsoft. Plus, the stock price is so low that I think a lot of Yahoos would welcome a big change, if for nothing else then to boost their portfolio. At the very least I'd be interested to see how Microsoft could integrate such a huge company properl…

It's simple. Half of you will all be fired and Yahoo will merge with MSN to create a monstrosity web division. The overlap in web products will create 3 tiers of service, the windows-ized integrated Live products (Live Mail, Live Search), the consumer centric Yahoo products (Yahoo Mail, Yahoo Search), and the pro-sumer products (Inktomi Search, Flickr, Delicious). This will be so confusing and stupid that after 2 or 3 years of Google eating their lunch they're fire the rest of the Yahoo staff and shutter off the Yahoo branded products in favor of the Live products.

But also, let's not kid ourselves, Microsoft could give two shits about Flickr. What they really want is Yahoo/Overture/Panama or whatever. That's the expected growth and cash cow that makes this deal possible.

Re: Microsoft bids $44.6 billion for Yahoo

#38

Post by aston »

jmzachary wrote: post #9

Interesting move especially in the context of a recent Garner report predicting bad times for Microsoft ( http://www.news.com/8301-13860_3-9862322-56.html?tag=nefd.to... ). Obviously, this acquisition doesn't help Microsoft improve Vista or Office, Microsoft's cash machines. Also, does this offer imply Microsoft is less confident about their Live initiative? Will Ray Ozzie be replaced by Jerry Yang?

Pretty sure if it's Ozzie vs. Yang, Yang is out in a heartbeat.

And I think this buy is more about strengthening Microsoft's online presence, not their desktop apps.

Re: Microsoft bids $44.6 billion for Yahoo

#39

Post by aston »

iamelgringo wrote: post #8

I doubt that Yahoo's board and shareholders will accept the deal. It would be a good way for Microsoft to spend some of it's extra cash, though without getting in to regulatory trouble.

It's in shareholders' interest to take that huge per-share premium and run with it. Better than holding Yahoo! until it's a penny stock.

Re: Microsoft bids $44.6 billion for Yahoo

#40

Post by ChaitanyaSai »

Some seemingly minor issues make me wonder how bad a situation Yahoo is in. Google has integrated their messenger into chat well enough that you can search through chats, grouped separately, as well as send messages of either kind to people you have contacted through chat or email. This makes a whole lot of sense, and I would think is relatively easy to accomplish. However, Yahoo's messenger is a bloated spam attracting monstrosity that seems like an estranged sibling to Yahoo's equally hideous email service; all the distressing genetic similarities but no conversation. Now how can a company that couldn't integrate two obvious candidates from their own bundle of services do in Microsoft, which isn't any better at integrating its own cluster? I don't see synergy.
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