I have read several articles today which report that Yahoo is turning down Microsoft’s $44Billion buyout offer. I first came across the story via my WSJ Online subscription (which I am canceling in March), and later in Michael Arrington’s Yahoo’s Bold Whimper and Kara Swisher’s No More Sand for the 98-pound Weakling.
The latter two articles suggest some surprise at the move, and perhaps a bit of pleasure that the Yahoo Board grew a set of balls. I must say that I am pretty tickled that Yahoo is doing this. As I have noted before, I don’t think this deal will make any real difference one way or the other: huge bureaucracies do not become less bureaucratic and more innovative by merging.
But, I have hoped that Yahoo would not get screwed in the process. They have been, and are, one of the good guys of the web. They’ve provided a lot of free tools for us all, and they generally support open standards. At least by holding their ground, they now have a chance of getting a better offer from Microsoft (or of striking some other sort of better deal).
By the way, I am not really anti-Microsoft, although one always has to choose favorites when presented with options.
Guess we’ll hear a lot more about this over the coming days. Your thoughts?
Well, back to relaxing for the weekend …