4 ms·

Yahoo tells Microsoft: 'Buy us'

30 points by habs 18y ago

arien 18y ago
Uff. Is Yahoo now banging their heads against the wall for not accepting the deal the first time? And is Microsoft drooling at this 50%~ sale on Yahoo's price? Waiting for the next chapter of this soap opera...
jhancock 18y ago
I think the last chapter reads: "The smart money always knows when to sell." Jerry Yang is a great American entrepreneur, but he did miss the mark by a wide margin on this.
- wensing 18y ago
  "The smart money always knows when to sell." Does that say anything about Zuckerberg?
  - jhancock 18y ago
    I'm sure Zuckerberg is a hard working and smart guy. But if Yahoo didn't know when to sell, I seriously doubt someone with Zuckerberg's limited experience does.
    - wensing 18y ago
      Yeah, I wouldn't argue with the hard working and smart part. And also, I'm sure if you let anything go to your head, you'll end up missing the best deal. I suppose you could argue that nothing went to his head and he just had a great rational argument for why Facebook is worth so much. Makes me wonder what his advisers were telling him when he was offered the Y! deal.
paraschopra 18y ago
Yahoo, please decide what you really want to do in life! You are being extremely fickle minded. Arghh..
- greyman 18y ago
  Agree. The main problem of Yahoo is, that they do not own any substantial technology where they would have competitive edge. Google has search, MS has windows and office, but what Y! has? None of their web products are essential. Well..ok, I use flickr and delicious, but those are not big money makers.
gaius 18y ago
If I were MS I'd have some fun with this. Offer $5/share and wait for the market to catch up.
- nazgulnarsil 18y ago
  that might be illegal even though it shouldn't be.
angstrom 18y ago
Never get involved in a land war in Asia, but only slightly less well-known is this: never go in against Microsoft when time is on the line.
markessien 18y ago
He's just trying to drive the share price back up.
mdasen 18y ago
Yahoo was a good company, but they missed their mark. Ironically, it wasn't Yang's fault. His predecessor who decided that Yahoo should be a media company (ala AOL) rather than a tech company (ala Google) screwed it up. So, the technology languished as they tried to throw poorly construed media at people. Only problem is that isn't profitable. Tech is. So, now Yahoo either has to spend a ton to catch up with a company (Google) that shows no signs of slowing down or combine forces with another tech firm (Microsoft) who might be able to eek out something. Neither looks promising, but one definitely looks better.
- thomasmallen 18y ago
  I do like Yahoo Sports though. I always go there for stats because the ESPN pages take so damn long to load. If sports fans benefit, then they've done well!
okeumeni 18y ago
Too late!
prakash 18y ago
This is the worst time to sell, and the best time to buy.
tahir 18y ago
If MS ends up buying Yahoo, what will happen to Zimbra?
- asnyder 18y ago
  It'll die a slow and horrible death? They'll probably convert Zimbra users to some flavor of Exchange Online. If they're smart, they'll find someway to incorporate Zimbra into their Exchange suite.
maien 18y ago
he is offering to sell because Yang knows it is only going to get worse and lower. and he is still making more to sell now then later.
lionhearted 18y ago
Does anyone else think he sounds like a tool? Maybe the article quoted him out of context, but... "They walked away from a public offering and we were ready to negotiate. We wanted to negotiate a deal. We felt we weren't that far apart. At the end of the day, they withdrew and they have since been clear about not wanting to buy the company," "Buying AOL? I can't talk about that, John. If I told you I would have to kill you." Mr Yang said he was "disappointed that they [Google] didn't want to defend this deal." "So I clearly don't agree with what the viewpoint is, but they are the government and they can decide on these things." You know what quote I didn't see? "WE MASSIVELY SCREWED UP AND ARE WORKING ON IT" ---> Which is what everyone thinks... if they came out and said it, then put out a cohesive-seeming turnaround plan I reckon much good would come of it. Criticizing other company for not buying your company that lost half its market value, criticizing the larger profitable player who almost wrote you a billion dollar check for not fighting hard enough for it, criticizing the government... not so much good there.

30 points by habs 18y ago

arien 18y ago

Uff. Is Yahoo now banging their heads against the wall for not accepting the deal the first time? And is Microsoft drooling at this 50%~ sale on Yahoo's price? Waiting for the next chapter of this soap opera...

jhancock 18y ago

I think the last chapter reads: "The smart money always knows when to sell." Jerry Yang is a great American entrepreneur, but he did miss the mark by a wide margin on this.

wensing 18y ago
"The smart money always knows when to sell." Does that say anything about Zuckerberg?
- jhancock 18y ago
  I'm sure Zuckerberg is a hard working and smart guy. But if Yahoo didn't know when to sell, I seriously doubt someone with Zuckerberg's limited experience does.
  - wensing 18y ago
    Yeah, I wouldn't argue with the hard working and smart part. And also, I'm sure if you let anything go to your head, you'll end up missing the best deal. I suppose you could argue that nothing went to his head and he just had a great rational argument for why Facebook is worth so much. Makes me wonder what his advisers were telling him when he was offered the Y! deal.

paraschopra 18y ago

Yahoo, please decide what you really want to do in life! You are being extremely fickle minded. Arghh..

greyman 18y ago
Agree. The main problem of Yahoo is, that they do not own any substantial technology where they would have competitive edge. Google has search, MS has windows and office, but what Y! has? None of their web products are essential. Well..ok, I use flickr and delicious, but those are not big money makers.

gaius 18y ago

If I were MS I'd have some fun with this. Offer $5/share and wait for the market to catch up.

nazgulnarsil 18y ago
that might be illegal even though it shouldn't be.

angstrom 18y ago

Never get involved in a land war in Asia, but only slightly less well-known is this: never go in against Microsoft when time is on the line.

markessien 18y ago

He's just trying to drive the share price back up.

mdasen 18y ago

Yahoo was a good company, but they missed their mark. Ironically, it wasn't Yang's fault. His predecessor who decided that Yahoo should be a media company (ala AOL) rather than a tech company (ala Google) screwed it up. So, the technology languished as they tried to throw poorly construed media at people. Only problem is that isn't profitable. Tech is. So, now Yahoo either has to spend a ton to catch up with a company (Google) that shows no signs of slowing down or combine forces with another tech firm (Microsoft) who might be able to eek out something. Neither looks promising, but one definitely looks better.

thomasmallen 18y ago
I do like Yahoo Sports though. I always go there for stats because the ESPN pages take so damn long to load. If sports fans benefit, then they've done well!

okeumeni 18y ago

Too late!

prakash 18y ago

This is the worst time to sell, and the best time to buy.

tahir 18y ago

If MS ends up buying Yahoo, what will happen to Zimbra?

asnyder 18y ago
It'll die a slow and horrible death? They'll probably convert Zimbra users to some flavor of Exchange Online. If they're smart, they'll find someway to incorporate Zimbra into their Exchange suite.

maien 18y ago

he is offering to sell because Yang knows it is only going to get worse and lower. and he is still making more to sell now then later.

lionhearted 18y ago

Does anyone else think he sounds like a tool? Maybe the article quoted him out of context, but... "They walked away from a public offering and we were ready to negotiate. We wanted to negotiate a deal. We felt we weren't that far apart. At the end of the day, they withdrew and they have since been clear about not wanting to buy the company," "Buying AOL? I can't talk about that, John. If I told you I would have to kill you." Mr Yang said he was "disappointed that they [Google] didn't want to defend this deal." "So I clearly don't agree with what the viewpoint is, but they are the government and they can decide on these things." You know what quote I didn't see? "WE MASSIVELY SCREWED UP AND ARE WORKING ON IT" ---> Which is what everyone thinks... if they came out and said it, then put out a cohesive-seeming turnaround plan I reckon much good would come of it. Criticizing other company for not buying your company that lost half its market value, criticizing the larger profitable player who almost wrote you a billion dollar check for not fighting hard enough for it, criticizing the government... not so much good there.