Google issues statement on MSFT's hostile Yahoo bid
Google SVP David Drummond published a post titled "Yahoo! and the future of the Internet" a couple of hours ago on the official Google blog. It's the first official statement I'm aware of on the matter from Google. Snip:
The openness of the Internet is what made Google -- and Yahoo! -- possible. A good idea that users find useful spreads quickly. Businesses can be created around the idea. Users benefit from constant innovation. It's what makes the Internet such an exciting place.Link. NYT analysis piece by Miguel Helft here.So Microsoft's hostile bid for Yahoo! raises troubling questions. This is about more than simply a financial transaction, one company taking over another. It's about preserving the underlying principles of the Internet: openness and innovation.
Could Microsoft now attempt to exert the same sort of inappropriate and illegal influence over the Internet that it did with the PC? While the Internet rewards competitive innovation, Microsoft has frequently sought to establish proprietary monopolies -- and then leverage its dominance into new, adjacent markets.
Could the acquisition of Yahoo! allow Microsoft -- despite its legacy of serious legal and regulatory offenses -- to extend unfair practices from browsers and operating systems to the Internet? In addition, Microsoft plus Yahoo! equals an overwhelming share of instant messaging and web email accounts. And between them, the two companies operate the two most heavily trafficked portals on the Internet. Could a combination of the two take advantage of a PC software monopoly to unfairly limit the ability of consumers to freely access competitors' email, IM, and web-based services? Policymakers around the world need to ask these questions -- and consumers deserve satisfying answers.
Image ganked from jgolson's contribution to this Fark photoshop contest (produced with Valleywag), which is full of LOL.
UPDATE: Redmond responds. Statement from Brad Smith, General Counsel, Microsoft.
Previously on BB:
the latest
latest episodes
ahh, this from the folks who bought Youtube?
I think Microsoft hopes to close this deal before Bush -- and his non-enforcement of U.S. antitrust law -- leaves the White House.
The answer to these questions is of course, yes.
That graphic is hilarious.
Impossible to disagree with that statement, I'd say, but I wonder whether in this case Microsoft is buying a brand which was on the way down already. Being under the care of Bill Gates, who is to software what the Old Man of the Sea was to Sinbad, can only hasten Yahoo's demise.
You know what would really help the internet thrive? If Google aligned itself with a bunch of government lawyers.
And how long before the boards of Microsoft and Google find themselves sitting at the same table thinking; "You know, together we could....."
If Mserf buys Yahoo, it's very simple, yahoo will have no visitors!!! it's not so difficult to drop a yahoo web mail account!
If Google buys Yahoo, wouldn't THEY control the whole internet?
If the merger goes through, I give it a month before you need Microsoft's Silverlight platform to view the Yahoo homepage page properly. And less than a month before they have disabled the ability for Firefox to open new tabs in Yahoo mail like they have in Hotmail.
Will it be called Yahsoft or Microhoo?
People still use Yahoo!, huh?
"Could Microsoft now attempt to exert the same sort of inappropriate and illegal influence over the Internet that it did with the PC?"
Google should take their shoe out of their mouth with that commment, considering the utter crap that google desktop and their IE / FF plugins are, and how invasive and annoying their software is.
Did you read the Microsoft Chief Counsel's piece? It's about two paragraphs of fluff, motherhood and apple pie, followed by about ten paragraphs of legal disclaimers.... *grin* Tells you where THEIR motives are....
Kinda sad to think that the Microsoft Chief Counsel works on Sundays....
Maybe this is a case of valid message/hypocritical messenger, but it's hard to take Google seriously here. They've bought Picasa, Earth, Analytics, Writely, YouTube, Blogger, Postini, and who knows what else. And Doubleclick.
I can't count the number of freeware apps I've installed that have tried to trick me into installing Google toolbars and stuff. I'm constantly astounded when I see people, at work and at friends' houses, perpetually running Google Desktop with no clue of how or when it was installed. I'm even getting tired of hearing jokes and other references to the company on sitcoms and cartoons and on Jeopardy.
This is like Coke criticising Pepsi for being nothing more than sugar water.
...And just because the photo accompanying this article has inspired it, all I can say is:
Patriots = FAIL!
:-P
Brian Damage,
At least so far Google does not have a proven history of illegal behavior in support of a monopoly.
There is a deep difference between buying Blogger or Writely, or even YouTube and buying Yahoo.
Congratulations to Google for winning the Superbowl!
Dear World,
We are are pure goodness and light. Our competition is evil.
Love, Google
At least so far Google does not have a proven history of illegal behavior in support of a monopoly.
Hmm. Cooperating with Chinese authorities on filtering search results qualifies in my book. This isn't like Coke criticizing Pepsi, it's like AT&T criticizing Verizon, or vice versa. Google is fighting for the same piece of the pie that MSFT is. Neither one is sweetness and light, and for GOOG to paint itself as the champion of openness and transparency is - as someone else noted - hypocrisy.
This garbage comes from the company that thinks it can read our private emails, photograph our houses from all sides, watch what sites we visit, and what we talk on text messaging. The company that thinks it has to be present in cellular phone, TV ads, radio ads, and other markets. From the company that has one of the largest lobby presences in Wash, DC, and the one that cooperates with Red China routinely destroying prodemocratic forces there. That has monopoly on search and contextual advertising. That squashes or buys all startups worthy of destruction. The comepany that has market valuation more than News Corp, Warner Bro, and NYTimes combined, haven't produced anything but aggreagtion of others' stuff, and in the end...
...the Google is just an advertisement agency!
That is how it makes its money. Can't wait for the Google bubble pop!
...while the Patriots losing is sad, hopeful that this photo is some foreshadowing...
We all know how great MSN search is, so I think Google has a lot to fear! Actually, all search sucks. The web isn't about algorithms, it's about people. As soon as someone besides me (I'm a man of extremely low status) figures this out, search will become irrelevant to some degree. I keep wondering why I have t type these posts. Wouldn't it make more sense to post an audio comment using Skype? It's these sorts of obvious things that I'm talking about. The internet was created by egg social phoebes and bears the mark of this legacy to this day. What we need is a knowledge market. When I need answers, it would be better to connect directly to the person who has it. All human knowledge in real time. Wrap your head around it. I sent Mark Fields of Women a note about it, but so far he has ignored it to the best of my knowledge. You should read it, Mark. Endeavor to understand it.
Of course the softees will bung it up. One day they will be called Micro Who?
this from reuters as posted on, nonother than, yahoo news:
"Yahoo management is considering revisiting talks it held with Google several months ago on an alliance as an alternative to Microsoft's bid, which, at $31 a share, Yahoo management believes undervalues the company, the source said."
PR spin, oh how do you pronounce it...threesome!
are any global corporations really in competition?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080203/wr_nm/yahoo_microsoft_alliances_dc
@#24 Pyros
I don't think you're onto something.
I shudder when imagining I'd have to listen to a thrown together comment thread. Anyway...talkback radio? Or...podcast?
I guess I get what you're meaning with "egg social phoebes", but I don't think it describes people like Tim Berners Lee, Vinton Cerf and many of their peers very well.
Hey, easy now....that's complete crazy talk. A system where you'd get content regarding any given subject in real time??? For free?? That's impossible...how would the operator replug those cables that fast?
"Cooperating with Chinese authorities on filtering search results qualifies in my book."
Well then maybe you should think about this issue a bit more. It definitely qualifies as operating under the local laws. If the laws are evil you must make a judgment whether to pull out or subvert as far as possible (which more often then not qualifies as a very difficult real life grey area).
If they were (required to be) actively helping Chinese authorities with identifying authors for persecution I'd hope they'd pull out (I believe that's why they didn't operate blogger in China).
For search results it's a completely different issue. Any information you get into a society makes it more open, as long as they don't actively help spread misinformation there is nothing morally objectionable here.
This is so funny.
How can anybody, anybody, take Microsoft serious? Instead of trying to be better, they just buy the competition to null it.
Microsoft, what did you deliver—let’s say—in the last 10 years that makes you worthy to be still so big? Copycat scumbags. You are so lucky that people are stupid enough to believe that you rock and that there are more sheep than wolfes.
You sure make a lot of money, but you look like someone who dresses for the first time:
Should the human race restrict their dominance of the planet Earth? Other species want to know.
I, for one, will quit using Yahoo if this deal goes through.
Hey, since the Giants won--doesn't that give Yahoo [Google] a chance to beat the Big Blue Screen of Death?!
LOL!
I'm dragged into this whole mess by my ISP (Rogers, and sadly the only source of bandwidth in my region) cementing an unholy alliance with Yahoo! that leaves all my email, web services, and basically everything except the cable to my house under Yahoo!'s tender loving care (not!).
Combine this bit of news with the last report about Rogers modifying http streams and traffic shaping, and I may be reduced to getting my internet access by carrier pigeon or something.
If by 'sad' you mean 'friggin awesome'. Then yes, I agree.
Luckily, I can still contact friends in MySpace and discover new music on Last.FM without major corporate intervention. Oh wait...
I will be dumping the Yahoo account I've had for nearly 10 years and my Flickr Pro account if this deal goes through.