Open Letter to Steve Ballmer
|
News Commentary. Steve, I've heard you're making a tough decision about Yahoo. I know what you should do. |
It's time to step back and walk away. Yahoo's not worth the trouble. If you force an acquisition, your legacy will be mud not Mesh. There are more ways to Google than through Yahoo. Why blast through the mountain, when you can climb over it?
Maybe the aQuantive acquisition put blinders on some of your executives' eyes. The ad company is boosting your advertising revenues, bringing in new clients and changing how you engage existing and potential customers. But aQuantive was a successful courtship. Yahoo is a shotgun wedding. Yahoo is never going to love you, Steve. She's a modern, independent woman. If you get her, she will hurt you. Microsoft will never recover from a Yahoo merger.
Steve, if the stress doesn't kill you, Yahoo will turn you into a real Monkey Boy, but shrilling in despair. Maybe a merger would work better if Yahoo wasn't so unwilling. Her dowry is enormous. You'll have to borrow money to get her, create debt Microsoft hasn't seen in years. Do you really want to borrow $10 billion or more for her?
Financial stress breaks marriages; likewise, companies. Yahoo doesn't want you. Deal with it. Move on. Don't take her by force. It will kill you and set back Microsoft. The $6 billion paid for aQuantive will pay back because it was a willing union. You'll have to show Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang the door—and boot him out it.
You don't need to be No. 2 in search or get hold of Yahoo's data centers to take on Google. You'll pay too much in pain and stress—distractions that will later call your judgment and that of your top executives into question. Haven't you taken enough of a beating for Windows Vista? Bloggers and journalists will burn you—not your image but you—in effigy if Yahoo is taken by force and later drags down Microsoft.
The next Google, the next Microsoft is a bright idea in the head of some Stanford University student. You've got to find him or her first. But that student will get away if you get caught up in acquiring Yahoo. He or she will go to a Web 2.0 startup, or, worse, to Google.
Who will you hire during a massive integration process? Better stated: Who will want to be recruited by Microsoft? You can lie to yourself and say that Yahoo's integration will affect only parts of the organization. Don't live in denial, Steve. Yahoo will affect all of Microsoft. The merger will sap morale and be an even bigger distraction than the Justice Department antitrust case. There will be division within Microsoft about future objectives versus existing revenue streams. People will worry about their jobs, about performance expectations and what executives they should align with. I promise you, Steve, the post-Yahoo power struggle will divide Microsoft, leaving Google free to push harder and faster; laughing all the way. Microsoft will become a company less willing to take risks.
Meanwhile that bright idea will go elsewhere, and some of your best people will flee the stinky integration for sweeter places.
Frankly, you and Bill Gates made a big mistake nearly a decade ago. You should have voluntarily broken up Microsoft—taken the Justice Department's plan as a cue. If Microsoft had voluntarily divided into three or four companies, shareholders would have received huge value, the stock price would be higher, you wouldn't be constrained by the Justice Department or European Union and you would have no Google problem today. Microsoft could have divided itself and conquered. Instead, your company's size, inability to respond in Internet time, and dependence on Office and Windows revenues make moving the Titanic easier than steering Microsoft. And now you want to make Microsoft bigger?
There are no viable breakup options now. The amount of technological, sales and channel integration makes a voluntary breakup too difficult. But that doesn't mean you can't start fresh, Steve. For a fraction of the Yahoo merger's expected cost, you could create funded startups within Microsoft. Why not start 100 incubation projects, with $10 million in startup capital and put them outside the Microsoft campus. Give your brightest people a chance to do something spectacular. Remove them from the management bureaucracy. Have these startups report to someone directly in your office and then to you.
Take a scientific approach to the startups by varying their degree of dependence on Microsoft. Make some operate completely independent of your company's technologies. Others should use open source and Microsoft tools. Etc. Change the performance metrics, too. Your company is too caught up in justifying strategies through focus groups, analyst surveys and customer, developer and partner feedback.
People don't make decisions based on statistics, Steve. You drive a big American car, right? By statistical analysis, you should drive one of those high-gas-mileage foreign cars or hybrids. But you buy American. You're from Detroit. It's an emotional purchase decision. You've got to get Microsoft employees out of head-metrics and move them to the heart. Change the metrics, Steve. Lose the heady analysis.
Give your startups independence to be creative. Last week I watched "The Pixar Story" on Starz. Apple CEO Steve Jobs invested $10 million for the startup in 1985, the same amount I'm asking you to invest in your people. He gave Pixar's artists the freedom to be creative, to truly innovate unconstrained. "Toy Story" didn't come for a decade. But what a payoff in the unprecedented string of hits that followed.
News of the startup strategy would have to boost Microsoft's share price, Steve. It surely would lift Microsoft employee morale. And your employees would scramble to be startup project leaders, whom you would give freedom to hire fresh people. Suddenly, those great ideas would come from within Microsoft; they would come with the promise of a new era of innovation, unconstrained by ties to Office, Windows or even .NET. You've got to let go to innovate, Steve. Not just of Yahoo, but your legacy technologies.
Do the right thing, Steve. Walk away and do something even bigger than Yahoo. You're either a man or a monkey. You decide.
Comments (36)
And Steve Ballmer says "oooo oooo eeee eeee ooop".
Posted by portuno | May 1, 2008 1:26 PM
Very well put, Joe! One of the best articles of yours I've ever read. And I agree fully with every word you said.
Posted by John | May 1, 2008 1:26 PM
This is a brilliant article. I don't agree with Joe on several items, but he hit the bullseye with this one.
Posted by JM | May 1, 2008 1:30 PM
Excellent advice. Let's hope this makes its way to Ballmer before he does anything drastic. Microsoft has the opportunity to do some really great things on its own rather than force a marriage to an unwilling partner. Come on, Steve-O, do the right thing!
Posted by Jason Syth | May 1, 2008 1:30 PM
Well, I am not sure Steveb's ego will let him walk. That just is not his nature, if he can fight the urge to "fight" then he may be able to move on...Nice post.
Posted by Digital_Dame | May 1, 2008 1:36 PM
Great article. i am a fan of MS. but in the case of yahoo they are going to a wrong way.
Posted by Aria | May 1, 2008 1:40 PM
Great writeup. Agree with you on all of the issues you mentioned. MS cannot bring down Google by acquiring Yahoo. The real winner will be Google if MS does not walk away.
Posted by aa | May 1, 2008 1:48 PM
Excellent
Steve
Its one thing to be gung ho and have this winner take all attitude and project leadership qualities. And yet a true mark of leadership is listening to the people below you and more importantly, listening to your customers. It seems that for the sake of being gung ho, something was left out of the process. One cannot expect be in a "leadership" role for long when subordinates do not see that leader supporting them.
More importantly one cannot be in or maintain a leadership role when customers, stockholders and investors see a company not respond to its customers and even its critics. This isn't 1998 anymore, it is 2008 and one must accept that it is a whole new ballgame now. While Windows may still be a dominant OS, its market share is lower than ten years ago. There are new players on the field now, and several have come to play a real game.
Lastly, it is "Business 101 basics" that if a product is not performing as expected to customers needs and has many ongoing issues. Business 101 states that it is better to cut losses and discontinue that product (Vista).
To make on going excuses and half baked comments about a product's poor performance ultimately leads to doubt about the company on a whole. Something that Microsoft cannot afford to maintain in the long run with the many issues it now faces.
Posted by Ralph | May 1, 2008 1:51 PM
Exactly, Joe. As you stated at the end of the article, Microsoft should believe and invest in their own people to create needed technologies, not purchase them.
Posted by Davin | May 1, 2008 1:51 PM
There is no sense in many things you try to expose. Yahoo! will never beat Google-poly alone. The enemy of your enemy is your enemy?, If Yahoo! thinks so, then will have two enemies.
Posted by AVelez | May 1, 2008 1:55 PM
Mr. Ballmer knows what to do. That's why he's the head of a major corporation instead of scribbling unsolicited advice in an attempt to stir up the clueless.
Posted by Les Verbose | May 1, 2008 3:41 PM
I don't feel the sincerity in this one. Microsoft is just fine, although I am concerned about the Yahoo! Merger, it still does not mean the Company is not innovative. I look at technologies coming from the Company such as the recent release of Microsoft Expression Studio 2, Mesh, Silverlight, the aQuantive purchase and continued innovation in the powerful platforms Office and Windows as a driving force and prosperous growth for the Company's future.
Yes, its obvious Microsoft is a large Company, but when you are a multinational with over a billion client users, you tend to get that big. It doesn't mean that Microsoft is lazy and slow to market. Web 2.0 is not a defining moment as many are looking at it. I don't see the relevance of things like Google Docs or the many web related services for the next 20 years. Right now I am in a lab typing this on Windows 2000 Pro, which pretty much proves that not everyone is in a race to move from local software to the web.
I keep reminding you that Vista is not a failure, its just the maturity of the Windows platform. The release of 2000 Pro and XP defined a new era in releases. The reliability and compatibility got so good over the years a strong nostalgia and connection was created with the user. Vista will create a similar experience and the successful release and adoption on over 140 million systems prove that Vista is indeed a powerful release.
Regardless of all the negative feedback from the Open Source community, the Linuxes, the OS Xs, Vista still beats them in the market in terms of user base and developer mind share. Predicting the doom of Windows or doom of Microsoft would also be relevant to all software company's, whether its Apple or Ubuntu. So much has been invested in the desktop, its reliable and proven. It has a long fruitful future ahead which will guarantee further innovation in areas such AI, Speech, Gestures and so on.
The web will continue to play a greater role, don't get me wrong. But it will be a very important extension to the desktop, an enabler basically. We can see Microsoft's vision and perfect understanding of this through investments such as Mesh. So to say that Microsoft does not get the web, is rather foolish and misunderstood. Windows and Office will always be relevant just as long as there is a CPU, Hard disk and RAM in our PC's. The fact that continued investment in hardware is happening means that software development is ever more important. The web OS is nowhere to be found or does not have the maturity to take advantage of the powerful platforms such as Office, Windows or other platforms or even OS X or Linux can realize.
So again, Vista is important, the richness the fundamental improvements in security, organization, Search and Communication. Yes, it took a while to reach market, but its here so why are you complaining? Get off Vista's case and stop babbling your misdirected frustrations at the Company. Please!
Posted by Andre Da Costa | May 1, 2008 3:45 PM
Andre is in a lab, alright. He's plugged in to a machine that tells him what to think.
Posted by portuno | May 1, 2008 4:32 PM
Nice one Joe. You should've mentioned that Steve is slowly becoming the new Bush.
Posted by Sir_-_Jeff | May 1, 2008 5:03 PM
I disagree with many of your individual points, but agree with the overall sentiment. Sadly, Steve doesn't care what you, I, or anyone else thinks, except perhaps Bill and maybe one of two senior execs.
Posted by Paul | May 1, 2008 5:08 PM
Les: Steve Ballmer is the head of a major corporation because he played poker with the founder of a major corporation when both were undergraduates at Harvard (yes, my handedness is lower than third and Bacon-equivalent Gates number is way lower than six on this).
In moving from an obscure job selling soap for Proctor and Gamble to the apex of Microsoft, Ballmer is the world-record holder for organizational distance traversed to become fully Peter-Principled.
Even Gates, who will be remembered in the same way the original Rockefellers and Morgans are today, has made some Galactic-level gaffes. Being the head of anything doesn't impart immunity against stupidity.
Here's the thing: even if you think Vista is the cat's scrotum, even if you think the Mesh will enable to Borg to overcome the Jem'Hadar, even if you think Microsoft's virtualization and thin-client strategies are actually pretty good (I do!)... subduing and integrating Yahoo will do exactly what Joe says it will.
With all due respect, Andre, you're 22 (yes, I cleaned up the link to your Live Spaces site and checked it out). Have you even been in a company that is going through a major hostile acquisition? You can't even imagine the negative impact it has on productivity, turnover, and morale... FOR BOTH PARTIES!
If you're a micro-fanboi (and there isn't anything wrong with that... I'm a THIRTY-year Unix guy {PDP 11/70) and I'm writing this on an XP-SP3 machine) you should heartily welcome Joe's advice to release the massive aggregate IQ in Redmond by funding 100 x $10-mega startups.
Posted by Zas | May 1, 2008 5:20 PM
Steve is a predator, he hates (fears) more the possibility of failure than the satisfaction triumph would bring. He will try to buy Yahoo although it could be potentially destroy Ms.
For him, the risk is worth it, in that he's got a good excuse: he knows that in the long run the cows (Windows and Office) will dry out. And MS will languish, albeit slowly. He'll never accept this happening during his 'reign' (to kill or to die). Ms' problem is that now that it needs an strategist-say, a Richelieu- it has got a warrior (like Varus)
Posted by Marco | May 1, 2008 5:50 PM
Andre, you're so funny man. That part of not seeing the relevance of Google Docs. Hehehe!!! Brought back some sweet memories. Like "who needs more than 640kb of RAM" or you know, not seeing the relevance of the internet. Such milestones in Microsoft history are hard to forget. Good thing they bought YouTube! Huh what's that? They didn't? Oh gosh guess there goes another milestone.
Now regarding that negative feedback from the open source community. Have you ever stopped to think if it is negative or just constructive? And that the Microsoft crew is just a bunch of stubborn punks wanting to go their own way?
Over the years the Microsoft crew (I dislike the term Microsoftie) has bashed open source from the "high ground". Today Microsoft stands on a development island. The only big software corporation that has not embraced open source. We have IBM, Sun and Oracle as examples. But not Microsoft. No they have to have it their own way.
Result: Vista. A crippled OS with all the "features" (bugs and problems) the Microsoft crew trashed Linux for. Lack of support for hardware (now it IS the manufacturer's fault, hehehe), lack of application support, hard to install and upgrade (good thing it comes preinstalled with most equipment). Get this straight Andre, Vista is selling out of inertia, period! Stop smoking the crack you're smoking and let your mind clear up.
This comment and all the open source "negative feedback" you spaek of is just a collection of observations made from people in the field, using and or developing the stuff. They're saying, guys watch out. Joe does an excellent job at making this clear in the open letter to Balmer.
The OSS community talked about Windows being bloated. With unnecessary overhead. Comments upon comments. The Microsoft crew talked marvels of Microsoft's work. Disregarding those comments. It was all a marvelous integration effort with great benefits for the customers. Who ho ho!!! Now XP SP3 won't run Dynamics. Now there is a Wow for you. Microsoft keeps fumbling it!!! It fumbled Vista and will fumble Windows 7 unless it gets a clue, cleans up its act and starts to listen. This is the most outstanding comment Joe makes to Balmer. Innovation does not just miraculously happen. It brews from interaction of brilliant minds. Isolated geniuses will not create innovation. The development teams should interact with ideas and technologies from other platforms and providers.
Getting back on topic. Mesh begins to look to me more like a glorified networks storage + SVN rather than a gridded system. Web 2.0 and all this network-cloud-SAS explosion is, at least for me, not about taking the processing back to the server. It is about distributing processing and using servers as hubs to bridge that intercommunication.
This is the interesting thing about Google Docs. It certainly is not the extremely limited features. It is how I can edit a document simultaneously with others. The document is on my machine, the application runs on my browser. I'm not taking up server power to do that. Yet changes I do are notified to the server and then relayed to the other parties editing the document. The document might be saved in the server, but I'm editing it on file in the browser. The browser is not a dumb terminal. It does work.
I predict that Microsoft will also fail with Mesh. Even though they've had success in distributed systems like XBox. Microsoft has historically failed in technologies required for this Mesh-grid to take off. Such technologies are : multiuser systems, multi threaded systems (multiple applications) and synchronization. They can't even update their OS product line correctly and you're going to trust them to update your documents? Give me a break. How many years did it take MS to release something the likes of differential updates to AD on Domain Controllers.
On top of that and as I commented a few blogs back, Microsoft has a problem with its development process. Someone correctly compared it with the waterfall methodology. Although I wouldn't use that term. I've never seen water go up a waterfall then back down then up again in circles. Yet I've seen Microsoft products defined, redefined, implemented, relabeled, reimplemented, redefined, etc etc etc you get the idea. So don't be surprised if Mesh starts releasing unproven and poorly tested technologies with huge release cycles. Balmer said something about fixing this error in development philosophy. We'll just have to wait and see if he walks the walk as he talks the talk.
Posted by Gerardo Tasistro | May 1, 2008 6:19 PM
In others words: Ballmer knows all that are you saying Joe.
Andre Da Costa:"Yes, it took a while to reach market, but its here so why are you complaining? Get off Vista's case and stop babbling your misdirected frustrations at the Company. Please!"
Who is Andre?:
Andre Da Costa :"Acer Ferrari 5000 I received in January of 2007 "
Answer: http://laughingsquid.com/microsoft-sent-a-free-laptop-with-windows-vista/
Quote:Microsoft Sent An Acer Ferrari Laptop With Windows Vista: Scott Beale on Tuesday, December 26th, 2006
"I’m not sure how I was selected to be one of the people receiving this (I’m assuming there are others, but I haven’t come across any yet)"
"So, today the laptop arrived (here are some photos) and it wasn’t just some generic laptop, but a really cool, supercompact Acer Ferrari 1000 12.1” notebook, with an 1.80GHz AMD Turion 64×2 with 1GB of DDR2 RAM and a SATA 160GB hard drive."
------------
Yes he is a Shill.
Posted by Marco | May 1, 2008 6:19 PM
In late December 2006 Acer Inc and Windows Vista (Microsoft) delivered review units to a group of 90 bloggers from the Windows Communities requesting their thoughts on the system and the new operating system in particular. I [Andre Da Costa] was fortunate to be a recipient of one of these units, an Acer Ferrari 5000.
See http://adacosta.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!E8E5CC039D51E3DB!15607.entry for more details.
Posted by Andre Da Costa | May 1, 2008 6:47 PM
@Andre Da Costa:
I have often criticized you in the past. Today I will defend you.
It is doubtful that MicroSoft gave many new computers with Vista to its harshest critics, but being a "Friend of Bill's" is not a shame. I think anyone who regularly reads this column fully understands that you received the computer because of your enthusiasm, and not the other way around. By then, friendly criticism might still have been helpful to MicroSoft, but blistering criticism would have been too late. Releasing Vista for "reviews" primarily served a marketing purpose, but there is nothing sinister about someone promoting something he sincerely believes in (whether it is Vista, OS X, the BSD's, or the Linuxes). You are MicroSoft's "Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols". Since you have never pretended to be neutral, I do not see the problem that Marco does. What is important is not whether others share your enthusiasm, but whether you can give them something to think about. Today, you did.
No one is likely to miss your love for all things MicroSoft, but at least you made an effort to be balanced, and you made several good points. Keep this up, and I might even change my mind about not following your website.
Posted by Pinball | May 1, 2008 7:43 PM
Andre Da Costa What are you smoking? it must be blinding good stuff.
Posted by TCY | May 1, 2008 7:52 PM
The skunk thunk the stump stunk and the stump thunk the skunk stunk.
It's a disruption wave for sure. No more talking about "incremental increases" as the wizard VC's in Silicon Portola Valley have said.
We're talking about large leaps. And so many are clueless. Human nature. No wonder.
Posted by portuno | May 2, 2008 12:40 AM
Shill:is an associate of a person selling goods or services or a political group, who pretends no association to the seller/group and assumes the air of an enthusiastic customer. The intention of the shill is, using crowd psychology, to encourage others unaware of the set-up to purchase said goods or services or support the political group's ideological claims.
--------------------
Perhaps to be a Shill is not bad itself, But you never could insult to people who bought "the product" or simply didn't like it and issued their opinion about it. You can praise "your" product, but not detract the opinion of another people because it is not just but insincere too.
Even more in my opinion, I think it's something similar to be a seller, you are getting some benefit of that, but (although it goes against the definition of Shill) if you want to have credibility you have that to be sure that the people know you seller's condition (or shill) thus they have acknowledge that your opinion have bias.
Posted by Marco | May 2, 2008 9:25 AM
Well to summon it all in a nut shell. Steve and the others at Microsoft like the senior execs want to be on top. Be the top dog over all. Microsoft has been eating up a lot of open source software companies that would impact them in their future plans.
Joe you made a good point about finding the bright idea in the head of some Stanford University student. And not waiting for them to go out and make a company and then Microsoft spend dollars to buy them out.
Steve has let his future get to his head. He only see, hears what Steve say or do. Like he made a commit on Xp that he would extent XP longer if many had spoken out in demand of XP. That in his head that Vista in the customer eyes is alright. So Steve will continue to expire Xp this year.
For Microsoft buying Yahoo, Well let just say it is a big mistake. So if Yahoo is going to hit rock bottom it fair to say that Yahoo resources are still darn good. The thing I see is if Microsoft get Yahoo and the way they do things by changing to their ways would turn Yahoo resources to crap. I believe not matter what Microsoft do they will never top Google unless Google makes a mistake in the future.
Posted by Ironpony | May 2, 2008 10:11 AM
@Andre Da Costa
If this is meant to be a subtle parody of Microsoft's nostalgic and misdirected vision over the last 10 years, nicely done!
If not, then the corporate koolaid is going to cause a nasty hangover...
Posted by Jason | May 2, 2008 11:48 AM
Again a hate Microsoft style letter.
Posted by Brian Webb | May 2, 2008 1:20 PM
Quoting from Marco's comment;
"Shill:is an associate of a person selling goods or services or a political group, who pretends no association to the seller/group and assumes the air of an enthusiastic customer. The intention of the shill is, using crowd psychology, to encourage others unaware of the set-up to purchase said goods or services or support the political group's ideological claims.
--------------------
Perhaps to be a Shill is not bad itself, But you never could insult to people who bought "the product" or simply didn't like it and issued their opinion about it. You can praise "your" product, but not detract the opinion of another people because it is not just but insincere too."
--------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------
The basic problem that I find with the employment of Shills like Andre by Micro$oft, is the dishonesty of the whole effort. MS has no qualms about this type of Shill effort on there part ether. Heck, MS has out and out bribed Wikipedia in order to get nice articles, and its list of dishonest, immoral, and shady promotional efforts are well known.
A shill receives some form of payment from MS, as Marco has already shown with the free laptop for Andre. It can also be free services such as free internet (MSN) and websites set up for the shills and MS Live.com. Andre's site reads like a cheerleaders website for Microsoft (or like a MS just the facts type website), and there is very little if any doubt as to why. Andre runs all his website from MS Live.com as the host, and gets all his email from MS hotmail. If you check amazon.com/review/RG51IHQ2HTK32/ref=cm_aya_cmt?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B00005UMBU#wasThisHelpful
you will also see at the amazon site that Andre has gone out of his way to "review" almost anything Microsoft, and its competitors. As far as Office suites, Lotus Smartsuite was the main competition for MS Office in the business world, funny Andre would be so down on it? Corel Wordperfect did not see so bad a review from Andre, but heck, MS invested in Corel, like they did with Apple, and Corel right away after that investment, dropped Linux versions.
Andre is Mr. ANDRE Live.com, MSN.com, andre25, Mr Hotmail,MS Shill, and more. Heck, on the internet, one can be however they want to be, and be from anyplace they want to be. How would we really know where Andre posts from, not that it matters.
MS looks for people who can spell, write elegant long winded comments and use big words, for its shills, amongst others. Mostly, they (MS) like to hire english majors as shills. Andre sorts of fits that description to a T.
Shills are just another dishonest business practice from a morally bandrupt, but very rich and powerful robber baron type of corporation, that the world would be better off without. Microsoft.
Posted by chips | May 2, 2008 1:39 PM
Anyway, back to the conversation about why this Yahoo deal is a bad deal.
MS will only screw up Yahoo as bad as they have MSN/Live.com in time. Yahoo's value will drop as soon as MS acquires it. Any deal for Yahoo stockholders, that has them get paid in 1/2 the amount, in MS shares, is a bad deal too. Expect MS stock to drop more if it acquires Yahoo.
MS buying Yahoo, is a bad deal for MS. A worse deal for Yahoo, and perhaps even a bad deal for consumers.
Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer modus operandi, is all about locking users into their software. These guys will never change, as that is how they made all the money. Its also a very big reason why MSN/Live has failed to capture a larger share of the internet business. And should MS ever acquire Yahoo, and figure out how to make their lock in work against Google, internet users will be the big losers.
Posted by chips | May 2, 2008 1:58 PM
All the lock in of MS is not going to work even with Yahoo and AOL in the pocket of MS, against google.
I do see why MS wants to move in the direction of internet advertising, as the two cash cows, of Windows and Office, are coming to a decline in revenue, price, and under attack from better and competing systems. MS simply needs new products to replace those.
But I think MS best future is one Joe talked about a long time ago, as a holding or investment company.
Posted by chips | May 2, 2008 2:03 PM
BallsMore will not walk away; his EGO won't let him.
HUBRIS is followed by NEMESIS and M$ has built up a lot of negative karma.
Posted by Oldtimer8080 | May 2, 2008 2:21 PM
WTH with Andre and Vista? If he loves Vista so much, in the words of Pee Wee Herman, "Maybe you should marry it."
There are NOT 140 million Vista users. And we all know what a joke 140 million licenses are. Vista is never going to be known as a major Windows release, at least not in adoption. Most are now going to just wait and see about Windows 7.
When you talk about Vista, it is like you are talking about Andre's girlfriend.
Andre, I like you. You are a very intelligent person. You just need to move on. Get an alpha release of 7 and get going on that.
Posted by Tom Berber | May 2, 2008 5:12 PM
Andre, get your head out of the sand.
Steve, please buy Yahoo! Make a mess of Micro$oft. The hopefully someone will see you're just an arrogant thug and fire you.
Posted by Maddog | May 2, 2008 6:27 PM
Steve should walk away from Yahoo and from Microsoft as well.
Posted by ilev | May 3, 2008 2:04 AM
ilev wrote
Steve should walk away from Yahoo and from Microsoft as well.
----------------------------------------------------
Maybe Steve can get a job at Red Hat and then he can call Windows a cancer that attaches itself to open source.
Posted by Ralph | May 3, 2008 8:44 AM
You are correct that buying Yahoo will likely be a mistake for Microsoft. I think there'd be an immediate culture clash and the "Microsofting" of Yahoo likely wouldn't work.
However, Microsoft has $50 billion in cash. The company won't need to borrow any money to make the purchase in a cash and stock deal which is what it will surely be.
And, with all the cash cows that Microsoft has and the fact it doesn't pay the money it makes to its investors (which begs the question "Why buy Microsoft stock?": but I digress), refilling the company coffers will be a trivial matter.
Microsoft would likely do better to build a new brand from scratch than to try a hostile integration with Yahoo. Even if the two side come to a "friendly" accord, there will be bitterness amongst those whom were "conquered".
Posted by Barry Williams | May 3, 2008 8:58 PM