3d May, CNNMoney thought Microsoft would buy Yahoo, Market Shifting yelled at this by January 2006, CNet News analyzed the Pros and Cons of the Microsoft Yahoo buy out! Well is this really going to happen?
Why would Microsoft want to do this after so much of speculations form very many angles? That's what we call pressure!
I guess Microsoft Needs to just look forward with what they are doing best, and do it to their potential. Microsoft was always trying to do things that Google is doing successfully. That means, Microsoft failed in certain areas, like Collaborative software or Online Applications(to put it in simple terms).
Microsoft once purchased Groove Network (in 2005) with huge anticipation they can achieve great heights in this domain. But the factual need of every user was a light weight software, and not bulky Space Hogging, Memory Eating Monster software. Groove never grooved to the beats of Microsoft, it was supposed to do wonders in the Longhorn edition, but in vain; Poor Ozzie!!
Microsoft always had this eager appetite for Large applications, needless we say how the Windows is a hungry software that eats up almost 2GB of your precious Hard Disk space. Well apart from all that, Microsoft was never able to leverage what the end-user liked.Microsoft was way too ahead in under estimating the end-user preferences, and thrust what they thought was right for the user, just because they made Windows. I have been an ardent lover and fan of some cool Microsoft products, and I hate to see Microsoft fail in such attempts, in a over zealous venture.
I watched Groove really make some impact in the launch of "Live office", still Microsoft clings to it's jargon like IE and Active-X, people have been blindfolded in the past, but the fold is off now, and they have started to vision the next generation software, way ahead of Mr.Gates and Mr.Ray Ozzie."Microsoft once purchased
Groove Network (in 2005) with huge anticipation they can achieve great heights in this domain. But the factual need of every user was a light weight software..."Ozzie, you have been wonderful in those days of Lotus Notes and Groove, it's high time you made some solid decision to get things right, and come out of the "monopoly dreams", else things will get worse, and not even Mr.Gates can help Microsoft out of the S**t they will be in. Hope this Yahoo buyout is changing how Microsoft thinks and markets it's products, let's all hope Microsoft follows lead, and gets S/W that are small and sound!!
Following the $50Billion mark bid, the market value of Yahoo [YHOO] have soared high, from a 38.2Billion mark to 44Billion [around 6B jump]. WSJ confirms the Redmond giant's serious advancements, and thus the jump in value.
Well looking at the revenues made by the Three Giants (source Agencies) $44.3 Billion, $5.25 Billion, $10.6 billion by Microsoft, Yahoo and Google respectively - there is much to catch up for Google to reach the revenues of Microsoft. With it's manpower of just 12,238 what Google has been able to achieve is noteworthy, but it might take ages to catch up with Microsoft "in reality". Microsoft was founded in 1975 by Mr.Bill Gates, with Paul Allen and has over 100 products developed[see the List] in English and an array of Products developed in Japanese. With Japanese being the most used language on the Internet(Not English Mind you), Microsoft has quite a large market share.
Google has to grow three folds to match the revenues Microsoft makes, and will never be able to match the kind of products that Microsoft has in pack. Well that does not make it true that Google products are "not worthy".
I would say the platform from where Google started it's venture was different form Microsoft. One should never compare the technology behind Microsoft and Google, because they are two different worlds. Microsoft was never a search company, it would never be, Microsoft added Search to it's arsenal as only a make over, it was the call of millennium.Google tries it's hands in the Document and Spreadsheet arena now, how many of you agree with me that it is poor brother and a cheap clone of the Microsoft Word, or the true WordStar. Though you will argue, they are online editors, the idea is all the same, what makes them best is they are online and light weight. Microsoft fails here, still the Office Live platform talks about ActiveX technology to get it's work done. This is where the end-user is pissed off, he does not want something to be downloaded to his system, he wants it to be fast, and free of space. So there lies the trick, where Google scores in bounds!!
So where does this all lead to? What is in the Microsoft buyout of Yahoo Inc.? Well Microsoft will be a search company when it buys Yahoo. With the 11,000 odd employees in the Yahoo camp, that understands the niche techniques of Online Application trade, it will be a sting in the Google Camp! - Is that simple enough and make sense to you?Look further, Yahoo boasts Online Apps like "The Search Engine", which Microsoft always craved for. With the addition of the quite powerful search engine in the pack of Microsoft Goodies, MS is going to relish the infinite number of Yahoo user base.
Yahoo Portal[Ajax Enabled], will make the Microsoft home page look smarter, and less demanding, cross browser compatible including the wonderful Mozilla Browsers, at last Microsoft will be giving it's users a non IE focused application?,"It will not only be a merger of two Giant companies, but two class of people get in tandem, and experience the best of online suites"
Yahoo Mail[Ajax Again], with Yahoo Photos and Flickr[flash Applications and Ajax Exploited] wrapped with The upcoming Yahoo Pipes is going to be a mind boggling experience to the user base Microsoft has. It will not only be a merger of two Giant companies, but two class of people get in tandem, and experience the best of online suites.
The Online Radio[Musicmatch Jukebox] integrated into Yahoo Messenger with the powerful "Yahoo Go" VS the Media Center[a free application, that Microsoft Ships with it's operating System] along with Yahoo TV is going to be yet another powerful and deadly combination in the entertainment sector. I guess this is an unmatched combination of power, with the media player and Musicmatch player joining hands. Wow, think off the kind of output the team can make[if team gels well - lol], an IM like Yahoo having the best of world's Radio, TV, and Pic-In-Pic capabilities that can support the most number of TV-Tuner cards! That is what we all can dream off, what technology can do to you is immense. Just wait and watch.On the advertising front, there has been talks about Microsoft and Google fighting head to head, buying DoubleClick. Yahoo Search Marketing plus Overture plus the RightMedia buyout is enough power to handle the ad-wars between Google and MS.
Moreover with niche Web2.0 tools like Del.icio.us, Bix, Yahoo Answers, MyBloglog Microsoft sure has the edge! watch out Googlers [including me!]
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