Microsoft Walks On By - Yahoo!
Well slap my ass and call me Judy! Microsoft is walking away from acquiring Yahoo!
Hot Damn and Yahoo!
(I have never, ever been so happy to trash a pending Mini-Microsoft post. Ah, yeah, it had a nice lemon analogy and everything but, well, forget it!)
While sanity did not prevail in making this crazy offer, sanity prevailed in not doing whatever it took to make the Yahoo! acquisition happen. Initial coverage:
- Microsoft: Microsoft Withdraws Proposal to Acquire Yahoo!
- Microsoft says proxy battle not worth it Beyond Binary - A blog by Ina Fried - CNET News.com
- Breaking Microsoft Withdraws Yahoo Bid; Walks Away From Deal (Updated)
- BREAKING MICROSOFT WALKS Kara Swisher BoomTown AllThingsD
- Microsoft walks away from Yahoo
- Brier Dudley's blog Microsoft tells Yahoo it's over Ballmer's letter to Yang Seattle Times Newspaper Blog
(Pardon me while I crack open a bottle of Col Solare.)
With this strategic inflection point, the era of post-BillG Microsoft 2.0 has begun.
(Sip. Savor. Yum.)
The only not-so-good thing out of not blowing all of our cash at once is that we'll continue to live in an era of cash-cow abundance, preventing us from making profit-minded decisions. The lack of the money cushion would have, I presume, actually caused new projects to expect to bring in cash vs. becoming strategic money pits.
Out of this had best come a new reorganization of our online properties. Out with the old already. We had reached a bet-the-company point in going after Yahoo! to make up for the lack of performance out of MSN / Search / AdCenter in an attempt to leap-frog forward. I think we need to hang-up on the good-enough consensus culture for a while and put in a strategy czar to get things done vs. expecting something to arise out of the dysfunctional ecosystem we currently have.
And speaking of Microsoft 2.0: Ms. Mary Jo Foley's book is out now. Once you get past the foreword, it's a good read. I hope she comes to campus - well, Redmond probably - soon so that folks can have a discussion of the book and ponder the future in a face-to-face forum.
Soon, we can get back to the usual program of talking about the recent Town Hall and looping back to cover the recent comments about Microsoft India. For now, I'm going to ease back and enjoy this strange feeling I have: being happy regarding a wise decision our leadership finally came around to.
350 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 1 – 200 of 350 Newer› Newest»It's a great day to be a Microsoftie....I've never been so happy that a deal didn't go through....time to go out and kick some Yahoo! And more importantly....time to go and steal away some of their engineering talent for far less than $44 Billion!
Mini, my hats off to you.
I'm going to sit back and savor this moment...
Now may be the time we look back and see this as Balmer's blunder and soon to be exit from the company.....
I know that everyone on Wall Street (whos clear incentive is to get deals *done*) will start to say how weak this shows Ballmer to be. I think this is looking at it all wrong.
I'm no huge fan of the guy in many cases but I have to say that I'm impressed here. Walking away shows *real* conviction and strength. It would have been so easy to just say 35 or 37 and be done -- walking away is infinitely harder.
I could quibble with the fact that this saga happened at all but given the outcome I'm so happy I'm willing to ignore that.
Happy, happy day! Now I doubt the company will change for the better tomorrow, but at least it isn't going to get worse.
On the plus side, this is a wake up call that unified employees even more than the towels :-).
Have to say, I didn't believe it would or could happen. But like you, Mini, I am SO SO SO glad to be completely wrong!
Wow. Just wow. Didn't believe SteveB had the guts to actually say "Nope, we're not gonna keep upping the ante."
Of course, he was a loonie to put the offer out there in the first place so...not sure where that leaves us.
??
I never thought I'd say this, but thanks, Steve. Foreseeing something like this, I bought quite a bit of Microsoft stock over the last few weeks, and you made me a few thousand dollars by just throwing in the towel.
Hearty congratulations to Mini and all 'softies for dodging this bullet -- and hearty wishes that this may lead on to even better things, such as Ballmer deciding to spend more time with his family, reorganization of (or even, dare one hope, FULL EXIT FROM!) the hopelessly money-losing online business lines (and -- dreams, dreams!!! -- maybe even the OTHER ones, such as Zunes ad games?!), new focus on the GOOD parts (desktop, office, servers and tools, ...)...
At the very least, this is the kind of news that might draw me back into the stock (though I expect such a hearty bump come Monday that I may not in fact get a good buy opportunity!-).
I actually have mixed feelings here. The idea of acquiring Yahoo! was a bad idea from the beginning, so I feel so relieved that the deal did not go through. I also appreciate the management team’s ego busting decision to walk away from the deal.
But… What kills me is how hated Microsoft really is. An icon like Yahoo! willing to commit corporate suicide (by outsourcing to Google) just not to fall in our evil hands is just too much.
I think it is time to fix our image, isn’t it?
HAPPY HAPPY DAY TO BE A MICROSOFTIE! Big thanks to SteveB and the board for realizing that walking away was the best decision for us. The initial bid was WAY TOO GENEROUS and many of us can't believe you went even higher to $33(if that rumor is true), but sanity finally set it in.
Thank you Steve. We've all put down our pitch forks and torches. They'll be pleny of happy drinking for softies everywhere tonight!!!
And now, I'd like to humbly submit Jerry Yang and the Yahoo board as the biggest buffoons ever. Yahoo turned down over $45 BILLION dollars.
$45 BILLION DOLLARS.
Could they BE any more stupid? If I was a Yahoo shareholder, I would be livid out of my mind. This will haunt Yahoo because now Yang and company have to prove that whatever the hell business strategy they have is worth more than $45 BILLION dollars.
I'm struggling to come up with any other example of such profound greed, ego and incompetence.
Nice work Jerry, you hit the trifecta.
I'm following a TON of feedback about the Microsoft walkout on the Yahoo deal here: http://friendfeed.com/scobleizer/discussion
Re: Anonymous who's worried about how much MS is hated -- that kind of hate is irrational, and people usually pay in life for being irrational. To get an idea of how much, check YHOO on Monday...
I hate to burst you softies' bubble, but the move by Balmer was probably just a strategic one to drive Yahoo stock back to it's pre-offer level, thereby instilling a stockholder revolt, similar to the successful Oracle-BEA takeover bid last year.
But I think Yahoo will weather this one, even with a stock value drop next week.
Thank God. Disaster averted. Great day to be a Microsoftie for sure.
I was eating dinner and glanced over at my laptop when a new email appeared...read the subject line, then startled my entire family by yelling "YES! We walked! Way to go, Steve!!"
Walk away.
Stock drops.
Come back again - deal goes though <= 40Billion
Whilst the above is a tad Machiavellian I suspect its the play here. It's a move that can be spun as a win if it works or if it doesn't.
This news just made my day as well and even though I might not have cracked open a bottle of wine to celebrate I did give a a couple Yahoo's. I have written more then a few times on how this would have been the worst thing that could have happened to Microsoft.
Now if we can just get Ballmer to take a permanent vacation somewhere in the middle of the Pacific on an island without any internet access.
>This will haunt Yahoo because now Yang and company have to prove that whatever the hell business strategy they have is worth more than $45 BILLION dollars.
And Microsoft is worth $279 billion? Oh yeah, I'm going to go there.
Yahoo stock was selling at $300 around 2003 before Google became the big man on campus. There may be a stockholder revolt if Microsoft spins up the phony press, but I doubt it. Nice try.
To those softies who think that some of us on this blog are about hate, you need to think twice. Why on Earth would anyone spend any time whatsoever here if there was not some genuine concern and care going on, negative or not? You are going to see a lot of top executive at Microsoft scrambling to justify this game and save their jobs over the next few months.
My wife showed this news to me on MSN homepage (yep we believe in dogfooding :) ) before Steve sent out the email and I was like "Are you kidding me?".This definitely compensated for the gloomy day on first hearing the news to acquire Yahoo! I know this might be shortlived when deal strikes again but enjoy while it lasts!!!
BooFuckingYaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wait Wait Wait!! You guys are HAPPY? You're happy that you have to now face GOOGLE ... ALONE?? Okay, Microsoft, come on, let's see if you have it left in you to actually COMPETE and win. I, for one, know you can do it because I saw you do it in the 90s. I just hope you can still do it this time. You guys need to band together, suck it up, stop complaining about all the crap you hate, and learn to love your company again, and take back the crown in online from Google. So, if you're happy you now have $45B in the bank, you better be equally charged up about using it to fuel innovation and just plain great products so you can win in the market.
I'm rootin' for you, I know you can do. And the world is rootin' for you too.
Go do it.
Reposted from last thread:
We've seen this production before (Larry Ellison special). This is end of Act I. Act III begins with M$FT coming back to the table in a few quarters.
Act II is about the bet that the YHOO board is making on Jerry--to see if he can demonstrate whether there's a lot of unlocked value in Y! It won't be made easier b/c there will likely be more lawsuits filed, etc. It sure feels like someone with a lot more creativity (and recall) can spin a yarn on this using the plotlines of Macbeth?
What's for certain is that M$FT still needs Y! to have a chance at being a relevant player in the online world for the long-run.
Sit tight for the wild ride--especially if you're a Y! shareholder!
- agent mulder lives
As a lowly TS from another continent, all I can say is "GREAT NEWS!".
If I had wanted to work for a Yahoo or a Google I'd not have joined Microsoft. Forget advertising, let's get back to SOFTWARE.
>> robert scoble said...
Really scoble? You've been reduced to trolling the mini comments trying to pick up traffic?
Talk about lame...
DITTO on the comment about Scoble. What a has-been. Can we get him to stop contributing his hot gas to global warming?? Scoble, get a life, dude. You were better when you were at Microsoft. Go back to writing glowing articles about Google--that should get you some traffic until they fall out of favor--oh wait, that already happened!
Let's get back to debating the YHOO stuff.
Thank god.
I do see this as a play by Steve. Notice how he pointed out the value left on the table. And called out the poison pill provisions Jerry threatened. And closed the letter mentioning the shareholders.
I would not be surprised, if this is not the last we hear of MicroHoo. But for now, at least, we can exclaim Woo Hoo that the company avoided an even worse decision (buying at the premium requested by Yang) than the decision to make the initial offer.
"Really scoble? You've been reduced to trolling the mini comments trying to pick up traffic?"
I'm surprised you're surprised to see this..he he
But seriously, have you seen how lam his recent blog posts are?
Thank goodness. Withdrawing the offer is a very good move. Kudos to Jerry Yang for taking steps to make a proxy fight undesirable, leaving this as the only sensible option for Steve Ballmer.
And all this Yahoo drama has distracted Wall street from focusing on how Vista is dragging the company down!!
Me thinks Ballmer was looking for a graceful exit for the last 2-3 weeks. All hail goog for providing that...
I _love_ Vista, honestly. I use it and I love it. I don't even work for MSFT. It's stable, secure, looks gorgeous on my new LCD, and includes some cool new features (photo gallery) that were not on XP. So, it's not a revolution, so what? It's a good step forward. Maybe it's really just XP 'Version 2' but whatever. Stop whining about it, it's getting old.
I think Vista should have been more aggressive in integrating search, and that might have helped show a path to winning in search and not require a drastic move like buying YHOO. Just a thought...
To those softies who think that some of us on this blog are about hate, you need to think twice. Why on Earth would anyone spend any time whatsoever here if there was not some genuine concern and care going on, negative or not?
Um, yeah... It is actually. We know what hate looks like bud. I've actually been aggressively confronted on SOCIAL CIRCLES by lunatics looking to "debate" when they hear I work for MSFT.
Why would they be here? Because they need psychological help. Why does any crazed, ideological, zealot spend SO much time fixating on "the bad guy"?
Why do right wingers troll Huffington Post and left wingers troll Michelle Malkins blog? Because people who have really, irrationally, extreme biases are crazy.
Don't think for ONE SECOND that ideology didnt have EVERYTHING to do with Yang's behavior. I know for as close to a fact as you can that Yang would have taken ANY other suitor over the hated MSFT.
Now of course a lot of this is the fault of MSFT for having the worst image management in history (I mean EXXON gets more love than MSFT), and some of it is due to Bill's aggressive monopoly building early on (although most today dont even really know the history in detail once you challenge them on it)
Really, MSFT is just the embodiment of what amounts to a social change fueled wave of anti-establishment sentiment.
The internet gives everyone a broad voice and if you yell long enough and loud enough, even people who arent that interested start to hear it. Add on a couple of bad public image moves and a flawed product, and couple it with strong competitors with solid products who are GREAT at image management (Google/Apple), and you have a real threat.
Image management has to be job #1 for MSFT at this point because even a great product will just get shouted down if the conversation isnt changed in the current environment.
On Yahoo, I suspect this is may be a strategic move, but until proven otherwise, Im just going to pretend its not. Sometimes a little fantasy is good for the soul.
Hey, if you don't want to see what other people (not me, by the way, that's not how FriendFeed works) are seeing Microsoft's moves, then so be it. Don't be surprised when you get more isolated and even more diseased with Redmonditis.
Scoble! You're insulting this blog by suggesting we don't know what FriendFeed is? Dude! I think you need a good ol' Seattle coffee break maybe laced with an ass whippin'. Come on, man, we know what Friend Feed is. Don't skirt the issue -- the feedback is that you're a has-been and you're just trying to prop up your page views any way you can. That's what people objected to.
Insulting folks won't increase your page views, trust me. Try originality of thought.
What in name of Billg does a faltering Yahoo! have that is worth $45b to MS?
This is great for MS, now let's invest in our OS, and make it fast with an elegant UI. Let' invest in our APIs and tools to make it easier to create apps. Let' make the driver model easy to write code for. Let's beat JAVA with better language, libraries and tools. Speed up the CLR, vectorize, etc.
We need to move away from the add feature mentality of Vista and really innovate our OS/kernel and what can be done with it. Windows and Server can go so much further. We should take this opportunity to really reset and get some management focused on the right things.
>Image management has to be job #1 for MSFT
OP here. I don't work at Microsoft, but I am aware that it must be a real issue to be the target of the wrath of a public that has long since grown weary of feeding the cash cow.
Believe it or not, I agree with most of your statements, but would say that brand is a result of doing everything else correctly. You can't buy brand value, you have to build it--earn it from your customers--it is a gift from customers who appreciate your services and products.
It is kind of a difficult problem. Do you have faith in your customers first and watch the dollars come in based on what Adam Smith felt about the best solution to the responsibility to your stockholders? Or do you milk the cow (screw your customers) in lieu of a failed argument that is what is best for the stockholders?
Is the vision something that involves working for your customers on an individual basis of improving their lives through the quality of your products and services or is the vision something that involves developing schemes of succeeding--at any cost?
In Microsoft's markets, it is a difficult task because a corporate customer's needs are never exactly the same as an individual customer's needs and your business has traditionally ignored the individual customer's needs in favor of the one with the money to pay.
I don't think your management really gets it about the way the world expects so much more than what you have offered in the past. I don't think they really understand the change. They know things have changed and they talk about it, but the decisions down the line are out of tune with your customer's expectations.
Which is it for Microsoft, ends to justify the means or means to justify the ends?
libraries and tools. Speed up the CLR, vectorize, etc.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc337899.aspx
By "vectorize" he meant use vector operations, AKA SIMD.
but would say that brand is a result of doing everything else correctly. You can't buy brand value, you have to build it--earn it from your customers--it is a gift from customers who appreciate your services and products
Going to respectfully disagree. Apple and Google are proof. Google can step all over privacy rights, act agressively, and monopolize internet monetization and it doesnt register on people.
Apple can have "battery gate" after "display gate" and it doesnt even nick their momentum.
The reality of human nature is that perception is reality. It's why good looking people have such an easy time, at a very fundamental level.
An ugly guy can be the nicest guy in the world and bend over backwards for people and get kicked in the head.
MSFT is the ugly guy. Bill has negative charisma. Jobbs is a charisma machine. Google is the hero of the ABM movement.
An argument could easily be made (and IS often made by neutral parties) that MSFT has MANY *great* highpoints.
Those arguments get shouted down and the folks that made them accused of being "shills". Its a mob mentality.
When a FORTUNE MAGAZINE columnist gets lambasted for daring to suggest that MSFT probably isnt nearly out of business because there ARE some good products, you know you've reached insanity critical mass.
Yes MSFT has behaved badly in the past. Yes there have been some missteps. But the impact of all of it is magnified 1000x because of image.
"Create great products and you'll be fine!" is a nice utopian ideal, but it doesnt map to reality.
My point is that there ARE some great products rolling out, but they are ignored entirely because the hate machine is strong.
Human nature simply is what it is. Jobs pulled Apple out of the grave by being charismatic more than anything else. They do four things VERY well... 1) build UIs 2) industrial design 3) create ecosystems and 4) manage image
Jobs himself will tell you that without 4, the rest is an uphill battle.
By "vectorize" he meant use vector operations, AKA SIMD.
Ah, got ya... Should have realized... mea culpa
>My point is that there ARE some great products rolling out, but they are ignored entirely because the hate machine is strong.
Just a couple of cheviots from op here: I was just reading a quote NY Times article about the Microhoo failure: "Christopher P. Liddell, Microsoft’s chief financial officer and an architect of its Yahoo offer, has told The Times that he’s willing to play hardball. “You have to be disciplined and ruthless,” he said. "
Microsoft has been at being a poorly managed company for a very long time. The others will catch up soon enough. What goes around comes around.
Your Apple analogy is a little off too in that Apple will never have Microsoft's position because it sells a bound hardware-software system, and Jobs long ago decided what was important to Apple and what was not. The focus is on the high end product offerings while Microsoft seeks a much broader distribution of product.
All you have to do is restore the honor in that. Bring it back to the individual level. Make us smile. The simplest thing is always the hardest to do.
Yahoo should quickly announce its annual shareholder meetings and wait for ten days to pass without events.
Once again Ballmer showed that we are lukcy to have him as our CEO. MSFTexterememakeover, I hope you are reading this comment here. On your own blog you filter out all the comments and analysis going against your own. If you had smarts you would be in a position of power. You are in a position of ranting beyond any basic knowledge of numbers.
Great, we didn't buy Yahoo, but that doesn't help our online story any. Having worked there for a few years, MSN is still loaded with incompetent PMs and developers and STEs masquerading as SDETs with a long history of failures that are busily pushing to the next generation of online failures.
What's Steve's big plan to clean out the rot and turn MSN around?
Scoble is up to his usual BS.
When pushed into a debate, Scoble retreats into the special better than thou insulting persona he has crafted so well.
So tiring... "you guys don't get the web, you're so old media, you just don't get WWEEEB TWOPOINTOOOOHH"
I can't wait till the day Scoble tells the world that Warren Buffett is stupid because he keeps investing in candies and not Twitter....
Hope you and Dr. Schmidt have a good time planning the future for us all Scoble.
...popping in briefly to encourage folks to steer away from the Scoble criticizing. Uncool. Let's stay on topic. If the comments can't do that, I'll start cleaning them up...
Your Apple analogy is a little off too in that Apple will never have Microsoft's position because it sells a bound hardware-software system
Agree TOTALLY on MSFT mis-management. You wont get ANY arguments here on that one!
Disagree TOTALLY on Apple. Jobs is a megalomaniac of the highest order, but he is also a GENIUS and a brilliant strategist that really never loses (plus he has charisma, so when he's as asshole, people LOVE him more)
He has reinvented Apple time and time again.
The integrated stack is their power. He either had great luck or great forsight in allowing Bill to create the PC industry (which took big diversity, an ecosystem and tons of partners) while he stayed monolithic and waited for it all to become a commodity.
Once its a commodity, people just want the "one that works and looks pretty" and "rule of the geek" is over. Thats now and BAM enter Jobs. Thus Apple market share climbs and he hasnt really done much at all except stick with the formula and make two GREAT moves:
1) leverage his work at NeXT to flush legacy MacOS thus getting BIG reward for MINIMAL investment since most of the work was done and MacOS was a dinosaur
2) switch to Intel thus gaining parts parity with the PC and opening the door for shit like bootcamp
While that was cooking he essentially took total ownership of portable audio (embarassing Sony, MSFT, Amazon, and all of the MP3 player industry) and then entered the phone business, turned the model UPSIDE down (something MSFT has INSISTED cant happen) and beaten the hell out of Win Mobile.
All of these moves required BIG balls and ruthlessness. Without going into a lot of detail, I am privy to some behind the scenes iPhone chatter pre-ATT deal and it was PURE hardball "YOU NEED US DINOSAUR!" type talk to all of the big names you can imagine.
And what happened? He was right and he won. Does anyone talk about or care about his hardball with other CEOs? NO! why would they?! Why SHOULD they???
ONLY MSFT gets ideological analysis. Thats the core of my point.
The current generation is lost, to be honest. My interest lies in fixing this LONG term which is why I am VERY bullish on XBox (an unpopular topic here, but the folks here are wrong on this)
I donate time to inner city schools and talk to kids. Kids that dont know WHAT MSFT is LOVE XBox. Kids that think Apple IS the only computer, LIVE on XBox Live.
XBox is our ONE remaining brand brightspot for the next generation. We have a narrow window to capitalize on it and fix things.
Anyone who thinks this sounds "ruthless" or "shallow" just really doesnt understand the realities of business well.
You will have ups and downs with products, but long term, your brand power will keep you alive. Without it, the greatest product in the world wont sell at all. History is litered with examples.
>>popping in briefly to encourage folks to steer away from the Scoble criticizing. Uncool.
You got to be kidding ... this is the same Scoble who "almost wrote a very long blog post telling Microsoft how it could get back into the search business" ... yah ... what Microsoft really needs is more Scobles to help it win in search ... if only he had time in between his trolling for traffic to his ad-infested blog.
Me thinks you value the Scoble-Mini cross linking a little too much Mini.
I am so glad Steve walked away. As a long time MSFT acid mine worker who watched options evaporate and stock awards go nowhere it pleases me to see that Steve didn't get target fixation.
Now, just maybe, all of our "incentive for future performance" will actually reflect the level of effort we exert as employees.
If only we could get folks in the middle to actually held accountable. I'm still seeing buckets of money thrown at people who don't produce just because they've made it to the magic cash level where accountability seems to be optional.
One more thing: it's gonna suck to be a YHOO shareholder on Monday.
Mini, I'm getting tired of all your negativity and lack of perspective on the big picture. What do you suggest Ballmer can do that would significantly move the needle on msft's stock price?
Google is a massive massive threat to many of msft's businesses, and more importantly is the only new tech business to emerge in the past decade that has the scale to move the needle on msft's stock price. Nobody has managed to put a dent into Google, and throwing more engineering effort at the problem is just a developer's misguided understanding of business in general.
Ballmer and his team must be smart enough to know how much of the search advertising business we can get with a yhoo acquisition, and must know that it has a good chance of paying off at our offer price. Just because it's a big number doesn't mean we have to freak out.
What ideas do you have to improve msft's stock price? Or do you just like to complain?
"Kids" will eventually grow up, though. When they have kids of their own, they will have neither time nor desire to play games.
>> What do you suggest Ballmer can do that would
>> significantly move the needle on msft's
>> stock price
Prune middle and upper management ranks. Mandate that all folks in management positions have a minimum of 10 reports. Abolish program management as a discipline - engineers can talk to each other without PMs' help. Institute and encourage 20% time policy. Go on a quest against red tape, visibility management, and process for the sake of process.
what's funny is i learned of this on TechCrunch BEFORE I got the internal email. Nice.
My questions remain:
1. Is online ad business really that critical for this company? Couldn't we find some new "next big thing" and be #1 instead of fighting for an "already big thing" where we are a distant #3?
2. If it is so important, how do we fix our online business?
3. As someone who works outside of online team, I have to say I feel abandonded. Today all attention has been given to online business, most resources are allocated there. If we are willing to pay Y! $45B, persumably we are willing to pour that money to Windows Live team while the company is cutting spending everywhere else. Should everyone just move to online team? Will we have another $45B to spend if we give up our "old businesses" but still could not win the web?
I was YHOO investor and sold all at 28.xx. Enough gain for me from 18.xx. Now those suckers that hold YHOO will have fun ride on Monday. It will go down to say $23 on Monday, then will go towards $20 by end of the week.
Now about fixing MSFT. I am an ex-MSFT. There are many problems in the company, some easy to fix, some very hard:
1. Trim down management - each lead/manager must at least have 5 reports. This will make things more managable and flatter.
2. Buy some stakes in online verticals. 4-5 of them should be as good as YHOO.
3. Raise the standards of hire again. Pay more for good engineer. 1 good engineer == 3 avg engineers == 100 dumbass engineers.
4. 80-20 the development team.
5. No interviews for internal transfers for those over 4.0 achievement on last 2 reviews.
The harder problem is really the trust and brand name.
1. For this I proposed to spin off a brand new company with MSFT owning 50%. Draw a loose line to this company with initial seed.
I speaks from experience. Balmer/Liddell barking dog. They will try to buy Yahoo again.
Steve Balmer is a genious! I love it. Thankfully Yahoo! was greedy. Microsoft is going to take that $44B and ROCK THE WORLD!!! Of course Microsoft needs to shed some of the indecisive and politicing middle managers and get down to some serious business? Can anyone say "Neutron Jack" (Ala Jack Welsh)?
ironer05 wrote:
"..new focus on the GOOD parts (desktop, office, servers and tools,.."
How about *compilers*?
Yeah! Just think if Microsoft had stayed in _that_ business and never expanded into operating systems. There are plenty of *free* compliers now and Microsoft's business would have been completely commoditized by now. In other words, by this point in time Richard Stallman would have made Microsoft's business model irrelevant.
The fact is, Vista has shown computer users that operating systems don't have to be exciting to be *useful*. Microsoft has been adding features and improving the design of their operating systems until _new_ doesn't drive sales like it used to; people are getting used to the idea of "good enough".
And now that they have reached that stage in their collective development, they will begin to look at alternatives. The alternatives don't necessarily have to have every feature of Microsoft's offering. They just have to work as good as Windows 98, Windows 2000 or Windows XP. Since Microsoft has decided to abandon their XP customers, they are giving the competing operating systems an opening.
Conceding territory is how IBM lost its business in the late 80s. Microsoft concedes users at their own peril.
So glad they walked.
Morale will be shaky in online groups, of course. Very much like MS walking away from Intuit and having to get the Money team re-energized.
persumably we are willing to pour that money to Windows Live team while the company is cutting spending everywhere else
Yuk, don't say such things. Don't you remeber the last massive multi-billion $ investment in Windows Live? Caused quite a hit on the stock the day it was announced.
You can see the results for yourself. Every single penny was wasted.
oh yeah, by vectorizing I did mean use vector processing, such as SIMD. sorry.
The Boy Fuhrer from Duncan Hines will live to do something even dumber than this, you can be sure. CNET hilariously reported that the Monkeyboy finally figured out that a friendly integration of Yahoo! was unlikely. There are few companies in the Valley that hold MSFT in lower esteem than YHOO. Had the Boy Fuhrer from Duncan Hines pulled this off, he would have been left with a Intifada to mismanage. Darn, that would have been entertaining.
>> How about *compilers*?
Now would be a GREAT time to focus on compilers. I don't know if you've noticed, but next year people will routinely run 8 core machines on their desktops, and compilers/libraries that could transparently and efficiently use that hardware are nowhere to be found.
Focusing on compilers is hard, though, because there's a lot of theoretical stuff to understand, and not all of it will work in the end. And, needless to say, engineers/researchers capable to go beyond the state of the art are scarce.
Why we can't sell gooddamn ads online - that's beyond me, though. We have all the technology and more than enough brains to get this off the ground. It's just so damn hard to get anything done around here, because everyone is busy playing the game.
A friend of mine at Yahoo just pinged me on iChat to tell me he's doing his "not going to get bought by Microsoft" dance.
This is going to be great for employee morale at Yahoo.
-jcr
SteveB was a dumb ass for making an offer in the first place. Yahoo and Filo have however proven to be even bigger morons by turning MS down. The only thing I now need to make my day even better is a mail from SteveB saying "after many years, Kevin and I have decided we needed to spend more time with our families....."
"Conceding territory is how IBM lost its business in the late 80s."
Nope. IBM lost their business by making the mother of all fumbles, by allowing Microsoft to sell the OS that IBM paid for to other vendors.
MS made their fortune by catching IBM's fumble. Microsoft's fumble is happening right now, and the beneficiaries will be Apple and the Linux vendors (including IBM).
-jcr
Speaking as an MSN insider (*not* Windows Live), things would be a lot rosier there from both a morale and productivity / revenue standpoint if we didn't get massively re-orged every 18-24 months. It takes at least 6 months for all the org crap to be sorted out and another 6 to get the MSN 'ship' pointed in the direction the new management wants to go (every new VP has an agenda / new world order they want to establish), so it is no wonder that MSN seems as if it is wallowing in indecisiveness. The whole Yahoo issue was just more FUD to really shitcan morale.
Yet despite this, MSN as an entity continues to be in the black. Harness them to Windows Live and call it OSG and it's a different story, of course...
What's with this Kevin Johnson dude?He seems worthless.
Yuk, don't say such things. Don't you remeber the last massive multi-billion $ investment in Windows Live? Caused quite a hit on the stock the day it was announced.
You can see the results for yourself. Every single penny was wasted.
Had almost forgotten about that. So in the last few years Microsoft management has
- wasted those billions on Live
- wasted another billion or so on xbox repairs
- let nintendo get ahead
- let bungee split
- come up with an embarrassing zune 1.0 response to ipod
- lost to google
- lost top talent to google
- lost to iphone / ipod touch
- paid 6B for aquantive whose revenue has declined since (botched integraton?)
- released half baked vista that's giving people a reason to try out macs, got themselves a class-action lawsuit
- missed virtualization opportunities
- numerous fines slapped by EU
- almost threw away 45B
- dropped in brand value
What's next?
"So, if you're happy you now have $45B in the bank, you better be equally charged up about using it to fuel innovation and just plain great products so you can win in the market. I'm rootin' for you, I know you can do. And the world is rootin' for you too."
Anyone who's working on Windows 7 (myself included) knows that with the right management in place Microsoft can do amazing things. Just wait until Windows 7 comes out -- note that the leaks that have been on the 'net haven't even shown a fraction of what's there. I'd love to say more, but I value my job too much :-)
"Anyone who's working on Windows 7 (myself included) knows that with the right management in place Microsoft can do amazing things. Just wait until Windows 7 comes out -- note that the leaks that have been on the 'net haven't even shown a fraction of what's there. I'd love to say more, but I value my job too much :-)"
If I was your boss and discovered who you were, I would fire you in 5 seconds for saying this crap. Back in the day, Vista was pretty amazing in theory and then it was totally gutted and what actually went to market was, as we know, a pile of shit.
The very last thing Win7 needs is your well-intentioned but seriously stupid hype -- it needs to be released to consumer acclaim. You need to keep your dumb yap shut and let the people speak when it's in the market.
We will have a second bite at the apple. YHOO will tank, the shareholders will file suits, and then Ballmer will be back with a lowball offer that will be accepted with open hands and clicking heels. I've spoken to some of my buddies who are super senior at Yahoo (Decker direct or Decker minus 2) and they were all hoping the deal would happen so they could bail out and get a tan in the Bahamas.
MS should never have bid for Yahoo in the first place.
As far as Microsoft India is
concerned - once upon a time -
maybe around 3-4 years ago -it was
a dream destination for college hires. This is no longer the case.
I think the quality of people getting into an organization is a very good indicator of its future.
In the last couple of years, no
top CS student in India would head
to Microsoft IDC even at gunpoint.
Every year they come to campuses with a big fuss only to get the B&C grade students who couldn't make it to Google Amazon Yahoo - or top jobs in finance and Consulting . Oh yeah, in a way its been great to have the MS 'bigger must be better' philosophy. The final job offer list for Computer Science students
(even in random no name universities) looks so much better with the comforting knowledge that anyone with >100 IQ is entitled to at least a Microsoft on their resume.
This is not the moment to giving each other high fives. Sure the company dodged a bullet but whats next? Where's the growth strategy??? Whats the plan to differentiate and win against Google, and others?
Google? Who cares.
We've wasted too much time and energy chasing something that just shouldn't matter.
An earlier poster wondered if we were afraid to face Google. Forget facing Google, let's turn our back on them, drop our trousers, and show them our hairy buttocks ... that's how much we should care about Google.
In a world of Software PLUS Services, let's never forget that the desktop (the SOFTWARE) comes first.
The logical next step, and one that would give MS a lot of leverage due to our customer base, is merger talks with my current company. Not that these did not happen earlier, mind you, but maybe SteveB will try again.
After reading this blog for some time however, I do not think that would be such a great move from our employees' perspective. And I would foresee a massive brain drain in case it should materialise.
I will keep my eyes peeled and my resume in top shape, just in case...
So help me out. Where's the growth in Software and Services tied to the desktop? Sure sounds like retention to me.
So help me out. Where's the growth in Software and Services tied to the desktop? Sure sounds like retention to me.
Sadly, the logical step would be to merge with a company that provides services in the backend... such as my company (as stated earlier). We already have joint projects for Desktop-Backend-Integration via services ("Mendocino" anyone???)
I get that almost everyone is jumping up and down because SteveB walked away from shelling out $44B for Y! which was definitely not worth that much. However, folks seem to be forgetting the reason the bid was there in the first place: MS cannot compete with Google in the search space and is losing tons of money in the process.
So where does this put MS: back to square one -- sinking tons of useless $ into the online business.
WooHoo! This is good news. The stock should soar on Monday!!
Of course, now this means we return to where we left off... the slow fade into a less important icon of the boxed software business of decades past. It's kind of sad, but at least we can cash in and run at a respectable stock price! :-)
Liddell, KJ, Mehdi, Balmer retirement anyone?
Steve Ballmer needs to go. He wasted everybody's time with this stupid Yahoo initiative. In the meantime, Yahoo has strengthened its ties with Google.
I just don't understand why I have to be "open and respectful" while our own CEO throws chairs to Kai-Fu Lee when he said he was going to Google.
let's not get caried away with joy here. This may not be a withdrawal but a tactical move to prepare a tighter noose around Yahoo's neck.
:)
>>Anyone who's working on Windows 7 (myself included) knows that with the right management in place Microsoft can do amazing things.
The Windows 7 management team released Vista SP 1 and XP SP 3. Both were recalled due to execution problems. Vista SP 1 has failed to address the issues people complain about. Does this management team need another chance?
Mini,
Is there anything about Microsot right now that doesn't require flat out denial of the world around you?
I find it hilarious that you're praising leadership for not going through with a stupid idea they originally wanted to do.
It's even more entertaining that Microsoft culture thinking has such low expectations and standards. You people feel so enriched after the most meaningless of things, it's like you're developmentally challenged.
Now that you've learned not to claw at your own eyes:
Colouring in the lines, breathing, peekaboo and after many years of study:
Coming up with good new ideas.
Wow. Lacking anything else to celebrate, Microsoft employees see a reason to party when their leadership doesn't do something stupid?
You discover that you can't buy your way to a distant second position in online search and you're popping champagne corks.
Talk about setting the bar low.
Now that this deal is on the back burner (not off the stove, it makes too much business sense and management has demonstrated absolute obliviousness to cultural disasters).. Management can now focus on more important topics, such as:
What do do with dying brands with no real growth future: Windows and Office....
Infighting between dev, test, and PMs about who is needed, and who is a waste...
Inability to grow in future areas: MSN, Live, Dead, on line collaboration...
How to fix a marketing problem, ala DEC, which would not market free gold...
.. and last ..
Until the employees get behind the company, the company will go nowhere.
Does this management team need another chance?
In the real world, clearly they do. It was the employees that screwed up, and the employees are the ones that shouldnt be given another chance.
In the fantasy world, however, you are right, management should be fired. But again in the fantasy world, I also expect Steve to wake up one morning and look himself in the mirror and say "Starting today I am going to spend more time with my family".
Isnt fantasy world wonderful?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6rqXHX3O48
http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/03/will-microsoft-really-walk/index.html
>XBox is our ONE remaining brand brightspot for the next generation. We have a narrow window to capitalize on it and fix things.
OP: Wow, don't get me started. . . whoops, too late.
Using your argument (ignoring the part where you forgot to mention that Apple and PC's are not exactly compatible as Apple uses EFI in lieu of Bios.) `Apple and Jobs succeeds, therefore copy Apple and Jobs and Microsoft will succeed' is a sorry example of Microsoft culture at its best.
Especially since everyone knows the XBOX profit history, the nature of its obsolescence (yeah, you used the same philosophy to copy Apple the first time implementing the PowerPC chip just before Apple moved to Intel--smart move heh). So is this a Pied Piper scenario repeat from 1281(the adults hate Microsoft so let's steal their kids)? What are you going to do when the kids grow up and realize that they have been robbed and can't play their games any more unless they buy another XBOX?
No, the strategic mess permeates the whole company and its strategy (quote Steve Balmer this morning on WSJ: "We like our strategy. We don't like our position." I have never seen so many stupid management decisions congregated in one company. Astonishing.
Microsoft has been at being a poorly managed company for a very long time. The others will catch up soon enough. What goes around comes around.
And they are indeed coming after Microsoft's lunch. Read on...
"How d'you like them Apples":
http://news.idg.no/cw/art.cfm?id=ABF984B2-17A4-0F78-3172942D3877FB58
and "Apple Leopard Server"
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2291502,00.asp
I'm waiting for Balmer to laugh at & pooh pooh this too, as he did with iPhone when that came out. Is he still laughing?
>>>"Now would be a GREAT time to focus on compilers. I don't know if you've noticed, but next year people will routinely run 8 core machines on their desktops, and compilers/libraries that could transparently and efficiently use that hardware are nowhere to be found."
There's a team in STB that's working on exactly that...
">XBox is our ONE remaining brand brightspot for the next generation. We have a narrow window to capitalize on it and fix things.
OP: Wow, don't get me started. . . whoops, too late"
I agree with OP. XBOX 360 is the only current microsoft product that has "fanboys". Hope the XBOX group don't end up killing them...
While quality of hiring at Microsoft India IDC may be bad, the new hires in MS SMSG India is even worse. The interview process does not even exist, exit interviews dont exist, people get into jobs that are way above their abilities or interest and we have Neelam Dhawan to inspire people to join Microsoft.
Good luck.
>> There's a team in STB that's working on exactly that
"Working" on something is not good enough. We've been "working" on search and ads for years.
"with the right management in place Microsoft can do amazing things."
Trouble is, the prospects of Microsoft getting the right management in place are small and dwindling.
-jcr
"The desktop (SOFTWARE) comes first."
Really?
I'm a business owner and a long-time Microsoft user and developer. I'm trying to think back to the last time I spent money purchasing desktop s