Microsoft

For those wondering how long Yahoo may take to respond to Microsoft's unsolicited $44.6 billion takeover bid, Yahoo says don't hold your breath.

In a brief FAQ posted to its Web site, Yahoo says it is "undertaking a deliberate review process" and warns it could "take quite a bit of time."

Yahoo said its process "will include evaluating all of the Company's strategic alternatives--including maintaining Yahoo as an independent company."

That could include pursuing bids from other companies, Yahoo said. "That process will take some time, but the Board … Read more

One of the first things Microsoft did when launching the new Zune was kill the 2-year-old MSN Music download service.

The business reasons were plain: MSN Music was a PlaysForSure service, but the Zune wasn't PlaysForSure-compatible, and it came with its own music download service, integrated into the Zune software.

Sure, there's still something with the brand name MSN Music, but it's basically a shell--a few music videos, some promotional tie-ins with Zune (through a program called Ignition), and a radio station powered by Pandora.

So what might that mean for Yahoo Music, if Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Yahoo … Read more

On Friday, I had a brief phone interview with Kevin Johnson, president of the Microsoft division that includes Windows and Windows Live, shortly after the software giant announced its $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo. I tried to get more details on the how Microsoft plans to bridge the cultural gap between the two companies, which brands it is tied to and what it will do if Yahoo says no. Sorry, I don't have more concrete answers, but I've posted a pretty complete transcript so you can read for yourself.

What makes you guys feel like the cultural … Read more

Note: Here's the text of the e-mail Steve Ballmer sent to Microsoft employees on Friday, following its $44.6 billion bid to buy Yahoo.

Subject line: Proposed Acquisition of Yahoo!

Today, I am very excited to announce that Microsoft has made a proposal to acquire Yahoo. This announcement represents a big opportunity for Microsoft, and is the next major milestone in our companywide transformation to embrace online services, search, and advertising.

By combining the strengths of our companies, we can deliver an efficient and highly competitive offering for our customers. Our complementary assets will give us increased talent and … Read more

Just about everyone else on the Internet has written on the potential acquisition of Yahoo by Microsoft for $44.6 billion, but I thought that I would weigh in on what I think this might mean for search and Web services.

According to ComScore's search share numbers for December 2007, Google has 58.4 percent of the market share, with Yahoo and Microsoft trailing at 22.9 percent and 9.8 percent, respectively. If Microsoft and Yahoo combine forces and change nothing, that will put them at 32.7 percent to Google's 58.4 percent. While those numbers … Read more

It's clear that Yahoo is struggling against Google, and it's clear that Microsoft wants nothing more than to be important in the online services world. But the combination of these two behemoths, neither of whom have been particularly innovative with technology or customer acquisition of late, is the next AOL/Time Warner debacle.

Does anyone think that the merger of AOL and Time Warner was a success? Does the marriage of two companies that have no clear strategies ever make sense?

Microsoft hasn't proven that it can take advantage of this scale of web property and has wasted a huge amount of time and dollars with all the Live.com junk. Yes, MS should move into new markets and look to the future but Yahoo is a massive undertaking with a completely different culture. … Read more

When you look at the cultural differences between Microsoft and Yahoo, you don't need to look much further than a floor plan.

Microsoft has been a company of offices, where workers toil individually at their piece of a collective project. Yahoo, by contrast is a Silicon Valley archetype where workers sit in cubicles and tend to work collaboratively.

The folks in Redmond are known for being hard-charging and competitive, both internally and externally. Yahoo, meanwhile, tends to be more collaborative, sometimes to the point of inefficiency.

There are philosophical differences as well. Yahoo has been a huge proponent of … Read more

Let's start with a disclaimer. Five-year forecasts are nearly always wrong and I have no reason to think Gartner's will be any different. Things tend to happen much faster or much slower than people initially forecast.

That said, if Gartner is even close to on point, there are plenty of trends that could be worrisome for Microsoft. First and foremost is the research firm's prediction that Apple will double its U.S. and western Europe market share by 2011.

Also of concern to folks in Redmond should be some of Gartner's other predictions. One is that … Read more

Last fall, Steve Ball, Microsoft's program manager for sound in Vista, posted a blog entry explaining some of the reasons why Windows audio can be glitchy. (That was supposed to be "Part 1" of a series; we're still waiting for Part 2.)

Today, Guardian writer Tim Anderson picks up the thread with an article called "Why Vista Sounds Worse." In addition to citing Ball's blog posting, he talks to the CTO for Cakewalk (a division of Roland that makes consumer and professional audio software) and an engineer at Steinberg (which makes the popular … Read more