Just about like everyone else who open up their feed readers this morning my first thought was WTF - are they nuts - $44.6 Billion … Microsoft looking to buy Yahoo! … where’s my coffee. At that point my wife reminded my that I had to get ready to go as it was getting time to make our monthly 3+ hour (round trip) trip to the doctor.
With any thought of being able to sit down and try and follow the news as it came along effectively quashed I finished up my coffee and off we went - in a snowstorm to boot. During the drive down to the doctor’s and back much of what I was thinking about was obviously centered around this stop the presses announcement made at 5:30 AM by both Steve Ballmer and Ray Ozzie. Which by the way you gotta admit it sure seems that when Ray makes a public appearance something fairly big is going to hit the fan.
Once I had gotten home and had a chance to read through all the posts in my reader about the offer the more I realized that this was going to be another one of the days where the big blogs would predominate any discussion about the news. This would leave the rest of us to either take a break until the news had worked its way out of the eye of the storm or we could add our voices to what was already a very large echo chamber. Of course this is easier said than done; especially for a cranky old fart, but what I decided to do instead was to pass along my thoughts on some of the blog posts that were now in abundance. So without any further ado here we go:
WOW. Microsoft Offers $44.6 Billion To Acquire Yahoo is the post by Duncan Riley on TechCrunch and currently has 233 comments firing away. Now other than just the basic news that the offer had been announced and a republishing of the Microsoft letter to the Yahoo Board of Directors, a pretty boring post in other words.
What Would a Combined Microsoft-Yahoo Look Like? is the follow up post at 8:45 AM on TechCrunch written by Erick Schonfeld where he takes a look at the news from the numbers and how a combined company would stack up. Erick’s post definitely adds a little more meat to the discussion.
Microsoft to become Micro-ad? has Mary Jo Foley chiming in on the story at around 6:40 AM and in her typical fashion offers up a couple of opinions about what this deal means in the larger picture. For her it’s the advertising.
Microsoft + Yahoo = Big Mess? by Long Zhend from istartedsomething.com on the other hand isn’t jumping up and down like many others in the blogosphere. He foresees a very painful period of trying to mess each companies services into one cohesive unit.
Microsoft and Yahoo: Here Comes Yesterday has Stowe Boyd; Mr Social Web himself, at 6:45 AM likening the deal to the other huge white elephant of a tech deal - AOL/Time Warner (he wasn’t the last person to make this connection either today). For him it was more like two floundering companies trying to be another IBM.
MSFT and YHOO: Then there were two is Mathew Ingram’s 9:38 AM post which can be best summarized up Mathew’s one line in the post - But can two sick dogs roped together beat one healthy dog?
The decline and fall of Yahoo post from the never to be left out of anything juicy Owen Thomas of Valleywag give a little background on Yahoo and some of the events that lead it to become the lamb on the spit.
Microsoft + Yahoo! = Microsoft - $44,600,000,000 ? is Mini-Microsoft’s contribution to the change of events that are unfolding and who I think has the best reaction quote yet- My first reaction: “That’s a lot to pay for flickr.”
Microsoft Smells Blood in the Water goes after Yahoo! is the post by Josh Phillips over at Windows connected where he seems to be echoing a common thought that many folks were expressing - why. As it is he doesn’t see any benefits to the search teams with the purchase and is the ad network and teams behind it worth that kinda money.
Microsoft to buy Yahoo: Ray Ozzie roars is the post where Robert Scoble jumps in and suggests that this is strictly to get Microsoft into the web game in a big way and maybe also a way to give the whole Online Office thing a shot in the arm.
Who’s in, who’s out at Yahoo after a Microsoft makeover is the post later in the day from Valleywag on what some of the personal costs of this deal might be. In typical cut to the chase fashion Owen Thomas lays out who he thinks will stay and who will be getting their very rich pick slips.
Ballmer’s Internal E-Mail to The Troops Explaining the Yahoo Acquisition has Erick Schonfeld post a copy of the internal Microsoft all hands memo as to why Microsoft had set its sights on Yahoo.
Yahoo + Microsoft is Dave Winer’s contribution to the conversation which can be summed up by he one line - Nahh. It’s like the dead leading the blind.
MSFT-YHOO: Striking while the iron is hot has Kip Kniskern over at LiveSide bringing up the whole Department of Justice specter but that it all boils down to a simple fact that - the timing is right.
Microsoft Really, Really Wants to Buy Yahoo has Stan Schroeder suggesting that because this appears to be a cut and dried one-sided offer than just maybe this was something that had been developing for longer than we know. I wonder if this was a part of Jerry Yang’s famous 100 day plan that he neglected to tell anyone about - except Microsoft of course.
And finally for now we have webomatica’s post Microsoft + Yahoo!: Here’s Hoping For 
A Better Option in which he has a pretty level headed pro and con look at the news around the proposed deal.
It goes without saying that this is something that the tech blogosphere will be talking about for a very long time- both before and after the deal is completed - or not completed. Camps will form on both sides of the fence and many a blog post will be written. Regardless of the outcome of today’s announcement you can be assured that the new Microsoft/Yahoo meme that has been created today has a life of its own above and beyond the event that created it.
