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AOL Jumps Into the Ring with Microsoft, Yahoo!, Google
Posted by
Zonk
on Thu Apr 10, 2008 03:18 PM
from the now-we-have-a-real-fight dept.
from the now-we-have-a-real-fight dept.
mikkl666 writes "Even just since this morning, there's much to report in the ongoing fight between Microsoft and Yahoo!. After Yahoo! announced yesterday that they are testing Google AdSense, Microsoft reacted with a comment pointing out that 'any definitive agreement between Yahoo! and Google would consolidate over 90% of the search advertising market in Google's hands.' Ironically, they complain that 'this would make the market far less competitive.' Both companies try to team up with strong partners, as well. Yahoo! and AOL are now closing in on a deal to combine their Internet operations. And of course, this morning's news was that Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. is apparently in talks for a joint bid for Yahoo!"
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Technology: Shareholder Backs Yahoo!, Supports Independence 149 comments
mikkl666 writes "In a follow-up to yesterday's story about the struggle between Microsoft and Yahoo!, major Yahoo! shareholder Legg Mason has announced that they are ready to back the company in their effort to keep out of Microsoft's grip. According to portfolio manager Bill Miller, 'the problem is Microsoft blundered with the letter this weekend. Telling the shareholders you're going to take something away from them is not a way to get their support'. Nevertheless, he believes Microsoft will end up paying what it takes to own Yahoo."
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Technology: Microsoft and News Corp in Yahoo Bid Talks 91 comments
KingAlanI writes "The New York Times website is reporting that Microsoft is trying another angle in its bid for Yahoo: joining up with another behemoth, Murdoch's News Corporation.
This is still very much in the preliminary stage, if anything, but an important development to consider. The idea of Yahoo working with fellow Web giant Google, in a plan to counteract Microsoft's takeover plan, is also discussed."
[+]
AOL In Talks With Microsoft to Merge Online Divisions, Says WSJ 56 comments
Ian Lamont writes "Microsoft executives are reportedly meeting with their AOL counterparts to discuss combining the two companies' online divisions. No one from either side is willing to comment, nor has the structure of the supposed deal been worked out.
The original unconfirmed report comes from the Wall Street Journal (password-protected). A few months ago there was talk about AOL teaming up with Yahoo, but that never materialized." The free excerpt at the WSJ link above seems to say about as much as this Bloomberg wire report which refers to it, and the above-linked story at The Standard; this Reuters story indicates that AOL is still courting or being courted by Yahoo!, too.
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This morning's new (Score:5, Funny)
Re:This morning's new (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
LOL. No articles, adjectives, verbs, adverbs reqd. (Score:5, Funny)
Microsoft.
The parent comment: "The great slashdot editors apparently thought that Microsoft deserved an entire sentence all to itself."
LOL. It amazes me how little Slashdot editors have learned over the years. Let that be a lesson to anyone who spends time playing video games. You need all your time learning how the world works. There is no time to spend being an angry button-presser.
Or, theory 2, maybe stories about Microsoft only need one proper noun. Articles, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs are understood. No need to repeat words like "evil", "Ballmer", "chair", "monopoly", "Chief of Grief", or "Software's Dr. Death".
That's an idea for a story submission. The entire Slashdot story could be just one word, "Microsoft". I'm sure there would be hundreds of comments. I know I'd post my usual comment: "The problem with Vista is that buyers are becoming technically knowledgeable enough that they don't want to be beta testers of a very unfinished product that requires them to buy more powerful hardware. Remember that Windows XP Service Pack 2 was released only 3 years ago. Before that was 3 years during which every Windows XP customer was a beta tester of a very unfinished product that didn't even handle USB very well."
Parent
DEFENSE! (Score:3)
C'mon. Yahoo is pluckings now. Default to Google, if no Microsoft buy.
Re:Yahoo is dying, Netcraft doesn't need to confir (Score:4, Informative)
Yup, Yahoo! is now officially dead and the buzzards are just fighting to see who gets to rip off the more choice hunks of meat from the bones.
Wow, $4 billions in profits [google.com] is dead?
FalconParent
Re:Yahoo is dying, Netcraft doesn't need to confir (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:This morning's new (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Re:Post your original submission here. (Score:4, Interesting)
Parent
IMO: AOL+Yahoo is better than MS+Yahoo (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:IMO: AOL+Yahoo is better than MS+Yahoo (Score:4, Insightful)
The real issue of a MS Monopily in the search market is that they will leverage IE 7+ and Windows to get all the features leving Macs and Linux user using a Sub Par version of the web site.
Why is MS Scared to death of google? It is because they are offering for Free off the web High Quality application that really don't care on what OS or office suite or browser you use. Grandted google docs is a bit clunky but it has potentional for greatness. And like Microsoft sucesss it just needs a competive advantage not be the best product.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:IMO: AOL+Yahoo is better than MS+Yahoo (Score:5, Funny)
You gotta admit though, "Goohoo" just might be worth it for the name alone.
Parent
AOL is so cute... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:AOL is so cute... (Score:4, Funny)
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Late night Fights (Score:4, Funny)
Yahoo stumbles over and tags AOL, who does a Flying forearm smash to the face...
Starting to feel like we need a claymation Deathmatch for this.
Yahoo and AOL (Score:4, Insightful)
News Corp. (Score:5, Funny)
Would *any* be an improvement? (Score:5, Insightful)
AOL+Yahoo doesn't strike me as being able to produce better services than Yahoo alone could. Or MS+Yahoo. Or any other combination.
The bigger a company is, the more cultural inertia it has, the less willing it is to try something new. Would strapping AOL's "never change anything" mentality to any company make it better? At least Microsoft has occasionally given one of its subdivisions such free-reign that it's been able to innovate (Microsoft mice, xbox360's networking features). Still, MS is mostly extra baggage.
Yahoo by itself is already producing tons of different services [wikipedia.org], on the off-chance that a handful will be successful. Combining with someone larger will certainly slow that down. Would that slowdown be offset by making some more likely to be successful? I doubt it.
Creepy AOL+Yahoo merger image (Score:5, Funny)
I never thought I'd say this but.. (Score:4, Insightful)
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (Score:4, Funny)
Yahoo + AOL = Good
Yahoo + AOL + Microsoft = Bad
Yahoo + AOL + News Corp = Ugly
Merging (Score:5, Insightful)
Fsck Ironically, Cynically... (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Ironically? (Score:4, Interesting)
Another example is "a tough row to hoe" (talking about potato farming) turning into "a tough road to hoe" (which makes no sense). The word "road" has not changed meaning, neither has the word "row" -- but people misuse it in a way that makes the word use and the sentence use cease to have any meaningful contribution to the conversation other than to make the speaker/writer sound more knowledgeable to those who don't know what they are actually trying to say.
For an example of a word that has undergone a myriad of transformations over the years, look at the word "nice". For a simpler example in recent history, there's "gay". For a different kind of transformation where the activity referenced has stayed the same but the connotations have changed, look at the word "jazz".
Parent