The Secret MS vs. Yahoo! Plan
30 April 20081. MS stars quit the company and go work for Google.
2. Yahoo stars, ditto.
3. MS disses Yahoo, calls off bid; Yahoo stock first ever to achieve negative numbers.
4. MS stock doubles.
5. Yahoo, now linked at the hip to Google and with a valueless stock, drifts aimlessly through the Saragasso Sea of No Strategy.
6. MS buys Google. Gets Yahoo online revenues by contract as part of the deal for free . Kevin Martin intervenes with the FTC and Justice Dept, insisting that no competition is good competition.
7. Ballmer re-reads note from investment bank lawyer, “what about Google?”, wondering if he misinterpreted the message.
3 Responses to “The Secret MS vs. Yahoo! Plan”
May 1st, 2008 at 10:03 am
Two nits.
First, Google has already started to lose its luster to attract top talent; red tape? politics? Staff expectations (set in the early go-go-go days) getting crushed on the rocks of reality? Regardless of the cause, the word is leaking out.
Second, many of the stars at both Microsoft and Yahoo are thinking up new things to do on their own, plus they have plenty of connections into the Angel Investment Community. All this should result in a nice wave of very interesting new product ideas and exciting, innovative companies. Thus, by the time MSFT buys Google, all the great and good employees (two ranks below stars) will have places to work.
May 3rd, 2008 at 4:14 am
It will be interesting to see if your message (proxy for the stars?) is taken on board. Feels like a BS/JPM weekend is overdue but without the Fed to grease the deal/knock heads together ….
In the end it’s just about money, as shareholders and markets may remind the parties, maybe rudely in coming weeks.
Bandit advisors, bean counters and lawyers will be the biggest winners regardless of the final outcome.
May 5th, 2008 at 4:14 am
Plan C? From WIRED – Epicentre
Buy AOL?
EXTRACT: The only other companies that can deliver the sort of scale Microsoft needs to grow its ad business, according to Ballmer, are Google (impossible), MySpace (taken), Facebook (Microsoft already has a stake), Yahoo (he’s trying), MSN (home team) and AOL. One of these things is not like the other: Among those names, the only company really ripe for a takeover, and which Microsoft hasn’t made a pass at yet (that we know of) is AOL.
Our Tip to Mr. Ballmer: Forget Yahoo, Buy AOL
By Betsy Schiffman May 02, 2008
http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/05/aol-could-be-le.html