[Eug]

Or at least YHOO is. MS backed away from their $33/share offer, since Yahoo!'s brass has been holding out.

The stock is now gonna drop significantly. Who knows, maybe MS will come back later and buy them at much cheaper prices.

I know a lot of anti-MS types will claim victory, but an empty victory it is. YHOO shares are gonna get kicked around on Monday. The purchase would have been good for Yahoo! shareholders, but now it ain't gonna happen.

P.S. I say this as someone who primarily uses Yahoo! for email, and disliked the MSification of Hotmail.

[analogue SPRINKLES]

Good. I think MS buying them would have been the worst thing that could have happened for them. Anything that is good for Microsoft is bad for the consumer.

I don't like or hate Yahoo, I just find them so Vanilla.

[Eug]

Well, MS not buying them may just be worse for them. Or at least, worse for anyone holding shares of them.

[Chuckit]

Being bought by Microsoft would be good in roughly the same way as crystal meth. Sure, the investors would like the immediate rush, but it's not really helpful to the company in the long run.

[aristotles]

You have got to be kidding me. MSFT buying Yahoo would have been the death of everything Yahoo ever created. Yahoo Widgets would have most certainly been dead and gone.

I believe that Google and Yahoo will formalize their partnership to a greater degree in future. I feel the two companies will work to complement each other rather than competing directly with each other.

[analogue SPRINKLES]

Originally Posted by Eug 

Well, MS not buying them may just be worse for them. Or at least, worse for anyone holding shares of them.

Microsoft buying them is no way better. I mean think of what they would have done to yahoo mail and flikr by cramming both full of bad UI and ads.

Not to mention do we really want MS owning another huge chunk of the internet.

Your Yahoo mail isn't a big deal, there a tons of better alternatives anyway. The real threat was MS having another monopoly.

[Chuckit]

What are the tons of better alternatives to Yahoo Mail? The only alternative that I've ever heard described as "better" is Gmail.

[Eug]

Originally Posted by analogue SPRINKLES 

Microsoft buying them is no way better. I mean think of what they would have done to yahoo mail and flikr by cramming both full of bad UI and ads.

Not to mention do we really want MS owning another huge chunk of the internet.

Your Yahoo mail isn't a big deal, there a tons of better alternatives anyway. The real threat was MS having another monopoly.

Whether or not you like MS really has little to do with whether or not MS buying Yahoo! is good for Yahoo! (investors).

P.S. Yahoo! Mail already has a mediocre UI. I don't use flikr so I can't really comment there.

Anyways, if I were a YHOO investor, I would have loved to see MS buy Yahoo!. I'd take my profits and run. Now that MS is cancelling the offer, YHOO is likely gonna drop like a rock.

[analogika]

The importance of stock price is WAAAY overrated. Especially long-term.

Yahoo and flickr staying out of Microsoft's clutches (for now) is a Good Thing.

[Rumor]

Originally Posted by Chuckit 

What are the tons of better alternatives to Yahoo Mail? The only alternative that I've ever heard described as "better" is Gmail.

Free Email

No spam, ever.

[MacosNerd]

Its a smart business move on MS' side. Yahoo was setting the price unrealistically high and they realized a hostile proxy take cover would actually damage the search giant's business and theirs as well. They're better off walking away biding there time. If yahoo stumbles in their business plan MS will be there ready to scoop them up

[Love Calm Quiet]

A "toasted" Yahoo sounds tastier and much more nutritious than...

a Wonder Bread world where innovation is *soft* as in Microsoft.

[MacosNerd]

Originally Posted by Love Calm Quiet 

a Wonder Bread world where innovation is *soft* as in Microsoft.

How can you say that about Microsoft, the people that brougt us Vista, Bob, MSN TV, Zune, etc

[Love Calm Quiet]

Originally Posted by Rumor 

Free Email

No spam, ever.

...and BTW:

What's with Doghousemail ? That links takes one to a puzzling page. And its link for their "compare prices" just takes one to a "directory of services" page... and no obvious link to their "free email".

If free email is central to their business plan, I a gain no confidence from its obscurity thereon.

[Eug]

Originally Posted by analogika 

The importance of stock price is WAAAY overrated.

That's easy to say if you're not an investor.

Yahoo and flickr staying out of Microsoft's clutches (for now) is a Good Thing.

I agree, but I think too many people here are missing the point. I agree that MS owning Yahoo! would be problematic for us consumers, but that's a total different kettle of fish.

Remember Yahoo! wanted to be bought, but just not at $33. They wanted 12% more, or $37. It's not as Yahoo! actually had its consumers' interests at heart, despite how a few here are trying to make Yahoo! into some sort of anti-MS saviour. ie. They were holding out for more money, not for the integrity of their existing business model.

[ghporter]

Being bought by Microsoft is the equivalent to going out of business. The only exception I can think of at the moment is Bungie, and that's only because their product was so heavily associated with Bungie rather than MS. Microsoft wanted Yahoo! merely to take a poke at online advertising giant Google. That's the MS way-buy something that is competing with you, or that you can use to compete against someone, whether it's good for anyone or not.

In 2000 (or was it in late 1999?) Yahoo! stock went from around $600 to less than $60 a share in just days because of the "dot com bubble" bursting. They're still around and still strong. This is the same sort of thing. A solid company isn't going to disappear because someone offered to buy them out and failed, though on the short term it will hurt stock prices. Which means it's probably time to look at buying shares of YHOO.

[turtle777]

No offense, Glenn, but this is a bad reason to buy a stock, just because it has survived the past 6-7 years doesn't mean it will in the future.

-t

[Chuckit]

Originally Posted by Eug 

That's easy to say if you're not an investor.

Yes, because then you're not myopically obsessed with the short-term performance of one number (and a number that can be influenced by nothing more than a rumor). It is indeed easier to say that when you're looking at the big picture. The fact is, if your company does well, the stock price will eventually reflect that. So the best thing you can do for investors in the long term is to do a really good job. If a move will artificially inflate your stock price in the short term but screw the company in the long term, that is a bad move for any investors who aren't just looking to make a quick buck.

Originally Posted by Eug 

I agree, but I think too many people here are missing the point. I agree that MS owning Yahoo! would be problematic for us consumers, but that's a total different kettle of fish.

Remember Yahoo! wanted to be bought, but just not at $33. They wanted 12% more, or $37. It's not as Yahoo! actually had its consumers' interests at heart, despite how a few here are trying to make Yahoo! into some sort of anti-MS saviour. ie. They were holding out for more money, not for the integrity of their existing business model.

I don't think that's true. The higher price was a bluff — Yahoo was valuing itself way more than anybody else, knew Microsoft wouldn't pay it, and they were right.

Originally Posted by Love Calm Quiet 

...and BTW:

What's with Doghousemail ? That links takes one to a puzzling page. And its link for their "compare prices" just takes one to a "directory of services" page... and no obvious link to their "free email".

If free email is central to their business plan, I a gain no confidence from its obscurity thereon.

There's a signup link right at the top. You get 25 MB space and your email is deleted if you don't use the account for 30 days. The features list also doesn't explicitly say it, but it sounds like you might not be able to forward email, send attachments or create rules with a free account. It sounds a little bit worse to me, to be quite honest.

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by turtle777 

No offense, Glenn, but this is a bad reason to buy a stock, just because it has survived the past 6-7 years doesn't mean it will in the future.

-t

Maybe I wasn't clear enough in saying "look at." I am personally planning on examining the way Yahoo! stock performs over then next 3 to 6 months, then if they do what I think they will, putting some money into their stock. I think the Yahoo! brand has staying power, and I plan on watching how things shake out before I do anything, but I'm doing this in the expectation that this particular stock will be worth buying in the relatively short term.

For the record, I'm also looking at buying into a number of recently started but stalled real estate developments around where I live, for similar purposed. I like the idea of taking advantage of short term investors and speculators by using a longer term view of both stocks and real estate. After they start collapsing, over inflated markets oscillate a while before they settle back down, so I expect a few small peaks and valleys in both real estate and YHOO before they get back into a positive trend. I'm patient.

[analogue SPRINKLES]

Originally Posted by Eug 

Whether or not you like MS really has little to do with whether or not MS buying Yahoo! is good for Yahoo! (investors).

I don't think the millions of people who use Yahoo are more concerned about Yahoo investors than the future of yahoo itself and the future of the internet.

Microsoft would have ransacked the company for any users or technology it could use and have added that crappy MS touch to it.

On the "investor" side it has so much opposition people would have walked out in droves.