Linked by Thom Holwerda on Sun 4th May 2008 07:19 UTC, submitted by sonic2000gr
Earlier this year, Microsoft offered to purchase search engine company Yahoo, however, the board of directors of Yahoo shot the offer down beause it 'massively' undervalued the company. This ignited an acquisition dance that took a few months, and rumours were abound as to what either of the two would do next.
Thread beginning with comment 312823
To view parent comment, click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
To view parent comment, click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
Member since:2005-07-24
They (correctly) identified the importance of web control before almost anyone else did, however they have not really been able to land a solid strategy for competition.
Despite the fact that they have always had so much control over the client platform. One would not have thought it possible for them to drop this ball.
Member since:2006-02-05
They had control of the client platform, but then they didn't do anything with it for a decade or so.
They aren't the only ones though. Sun came up with applets, but totally blew it with AWT and swing. Flash filled the space for years, but it was never designed for anything but interactive movies, and is not only a bitch to program, but will bring even a high end machine to its knees.
Yahoo didn't go the way of client control, they went the way of webapp control (also the way that google has been going). But instead of dropping the ball, they have been doing a decent job of it (at least until recently)
Member since:
2006-02-05
Honestly, their bid was WAY more then Yahoo is worth. The thing is that yahoo has a very distinct and unique corporate culture, which is probably why it was refused.
He wants yahoo because yahoo owns almost as much of the web as google does (which, incidentaly is probably why google isn't trying to buy them. Last thing they want is monopoly status).
MS has had a puzzling internet strategy. They (correctly) identified the importance of web control before almost anyone else did, however they have not really been able to land a solid strategy for competition.