MSFT-YHOO: Striking while the iron is hot

re: MSFT-YHOO: Striking while the iron is hot

rb1385 — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 20:57:58 GMT

I just can't see paying 44 billion unless they were going to switch Windows Live Messenger for Yahoo messenger which works much better. I think they are spending their money in the wrong place but we will see how it shakes out in the end. I hope I am wrong.

re: MSFT-YHOO: Striking while the iron is hot

CalumJR — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 11:57:03 GMT

I disagree, rb1385, because it would take AGES for MS to catch up with Yahoo on the search share. Also, buying Yahoo would give MS a much higher userbase, specifially for thier Instant Messaging service.

re: MSFT-YHOO: Striking while the iron is hot

rb1385 — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 09:18:57 GMT

I think this is a terrible deal. Too much money and two different cultures that will never merge together. Another AOL/Time Warner or worse.

Microsoft needs to spend their money on improving their services and hiring young exciting people to bring fresh ideas to a company that is becoming too slow to change.

re: MSFT-YHOO: Striking while the iron is hot

JohnCz — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 08:53:27 GMT

I don't see the big deal...migrate to Live ID. The average consumer doesn't care what authentication system is used as long as their UserID and password don't change on them. But we'll see how all this works out.

re: MSFT-YHOO: Striking while the iron is hot

Chris — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 08:15:37 GMT

pjzedalis interesting angle on the Live ID front. maybe they would go OpenID though, after all MS seems to be joining a number of initiatives right now.

quikboy, totally agree on the transition speed. Though for search + advertising I think we'd see that over a period of months, rather than the remainder of the services which would be running into the years.

Of course this is all assuming the deal goes ahead..

re: MSFT-YHOO: Striking while the iron is hot

quikboy — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 06:36:07 GMT

I think if MS really did buy Y!, the transition will be very slow. I'm thinking that Y! brand itself, will go away, but the sites and services might somehow be mixed with Windows Live/MSN into a much better way.

I'm thinking that the best site offered from each company by category, will make it to the finish. Or, those guys can try to take what they think are the best features and put them together in one great site.

And other sites will be enhanced some more, and then launched.

It would be great if there were such an acquisition. MS and Y! just have to take it slowly, without causing their user base to get angry for it to work well.

re: MSFT-YHOO: Striking while the iron is hot

pjzedalis — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 04:54:35 GMT

eh, what Im saying is they cant because yahoo id's are being used as openid's... and I don't see them making Live ID's OpenID compatible.

re: MSFT-YHOO: Striking while the iron is hot

JohnCz — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 04:45:40 GMT

pjzedalis, I agree they will port all services to use Live ID and convert Yahoo user IDs to Live ID platform.

re: MSFT-YHOO: Striking while the iron is hot

pjzedalis — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 04:29:05 GMT

I use my domain for live id too..

However I think you are wrong because Yahoo has been beta testing a open id service.

Microsoft will not let Yahoo continue using openid in a liveid world. They are not likely to kill the openid project either given so many probably use it at this point.

re: MSFT-YHOO: Striking while the iron is hot

Chris — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 04:16:47 GMT

This has disaster written all over it for some of these products. The question is which ones. And how long will they keep the Yahoo brand for? Interesting times.

re: MSFT-YHOO: Striking while the iron is hot

JohnCz — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 04:05:39 GMT

pjzedalis..I think you are wrong on the point of how they would handle IDs. Yahoo IDs will be turned into Live IDs. I'm a Office Live customer and have a Live ID based on my own domain. So I don't that that will be at all controversial.

The one asset that hasn't been mentioned here is Zimbra. I think that could become a Live service.

Yahoo will probably provide much of the syndicated content for MSN.

Yahoo's small business offering are likely to be overtaken by Office Live services.

VOIP service that Yahoo has probably will make its way into many MS products.

The possibilities and risk are huge. But in the end, I think its going to pay off for both.

re: MSFT-YHOO: Striking while the iron is hot

pjzedalis — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 03:44:53 GMT

oh and you heard it here first, but iphone sms messages will soon be archived in gmail automatically.

re: MSFT-YHOO: Striking while the iron is hot

pjzedalis — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 03:43:29 GMT

They won't integrate it with Windows Live, they'd be afraid to scare the userbase who have used the same yahoo id since the dawn of the Internet.

However, they will merge the ad networks, disband Yahoo Music in favor of the Zune, possibly kill the YPN or bring it out of beta. MSN will become more Yahoo'ish, and some of the more trendy Yahoo properties will become more Windows Live'ish.

Also the Yahoo briefcase will become Office Workspaces. Not sure how AT&T fits into this, but I suspect that partnership won't last too much longer as Google and Apple will approach AT&T about giving gmail to all iphone users and dsl users, etc.

Yahoo messenger will get more bloated. MSN Messenger will become the default choice. Yahoo messenger for vista will get killed off.

Somebodys search team will get the axe and hired by ask.com.

re: MSFT-YHOO: Striking while the iron is hot

Mephiles — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 02:52:00 GMT

I think it's a great idea. It will really benefit, but can we relly be sure if it will be merged with Windows Live?