Articles
Sample of news articles from the past:
“Microsoft to Yahoo: See, I did the calculation on a back of an envelope. 2+3 is greater than 1. It’s a done deal. “
Maybe Microsoft isn’t the ego-centric tech giant everyone believes it to be. Last week, in an effort to battle Google, Microsoft made a surprising - and unsolicited - offer to purchase Yahoo. The offer was a subtle admission of Microsoft’s own struggles to compete with the ever-growing Google. The deal would combine the assets of both companies and would give Microsoft a better chance of knocking Google off its search engine high horse. Microsoft’s offer was a buyout of cash and stock, with the tender offer of $31.00 for each Yahoo share. At the time of the offer Yahoo’s shares were trading at $42.00.
According to a Microsoft press release, the acquisition would allow the two companies to “offer an increasingly exciting set of solutions for consumers, publishers and advertisers while becoming better positioned to compete.” For those of you not familiar with PR-speak, that means “Dude, Google is beating us. We need help. Let’s buy Yahoo.” Most analysts agree that this would certainly shore up Microsoft’s position in the search engine category. The numbers vary across analysts, but Google currently has 65% - 75% of the search marketplace, with Yahoo and Microsoft following with 21% and 7% respectively.
While “becoming better positioned to compete” seems like a reasonable excuse for spending $44.6 billion, Microsoft’s past behavior doesn’t quite align with this new found appreciation of competition. The past few years have seen Microsoft repeatedly investigated by the DOJ and EU for antitrust practices surrounding several of its products. In 2004, the EU penalized Microsoft with an antitrust conviction which brought, among other sanctions, a fine of $690 million dollars.
From the Yahoo side, the offer could help jumpstart a stalled company turnaround that many people, including Yahoo shareholders, are still anticipating. Yahoo has consistently underperformed in past years. The lackluster progress eventually led to one of Yahoo’s founders, Jerry Yang, taking over as CEO from Terry Segel. The management team of Microsoft could provide the knowledge and experience to help rejuvenate the Yahoo machine. But, there are lingering issues.
The corporate cultures of the two companies are vastly different and combining them could be troublesome. Yahoo is still a darling of the Valley and Microsoft is…, well…, not. It will be interesting to see how the cultures react to each other. Additionally, the buyout could put an end to a substantial portion of Yahoo’s partnership agreements, especially those who compete with other Microsoft divisions. There has been no word as to which programs will remain and those to continue.
It’s rare to see large transactions like this in the tech world. And it’s even rarer to see them succeed. The AOL purchase of Time Warner in 2001 has been an embarrassing failure. The Hewlett Packard purchase of Compaq has been shaky at best. Many people believing that deal to be the first rift that ultimately led to the ousting of HP’s then CEO, Carly Fiorina. More recently, the media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s empire bought MySpace for $580M. It’s too early to tell how that will work, although many analysts are skeptical.
We will have to wait and see how this deal unfolds, Many people are watching and many people are shouting. It will be interesting to see how it turns out.
Finally something for the geeks and the paranoid schizophrenics to discuss at the next cocktail party…
For all the good that the web brings us, there are still some annoyances. The web remains a fruitful place to find the latest gossip, celebrity sightings, and embarrassing news. And, of course, the web is a great place to discuss of your favorite conspiracy theory.
Last week, in an odd twist straight from a Charlie Kaufman screenplay, the physical cables normally relegated to delivering these theories from country to country, actually become the topic of these conspiracy theories.
On or around January 30, two undersea cables that carry traffic from Europe to the Middle East were cut. Internet traffic drastically dropped 70% in Egypt, with India also affected. Within a few days, the underwater connection mishaps multiplied, with a total of 5 cables being severed. Much of the Middle East, including Egypt, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, UAE, Pakistan, and India, had limited or no access to the Internet. As the Internet traffic to the Middle East came to a halt, the conspiracy theories simultaneously swirled into overdrive and started to overheat.
These underwater connections are the only way that the continent of Europe is connected to the Internet. Cutting the lines limits the information flow for the web, email, and some telephone conversations. Many people initially assumed this was some sort of terrorist activity targeting the Middle East.
The more rational among us offer other explanations. The most likely scenario is the lines were accidentally cut by a passing anchor. One analyst suggests that given the total number of lines in the oceans and the total number of possible failure points, having several lines go down at the same time could be an anomaly well within the bounds of statistics.
Don’t believe that one? Yeah, I’ve always been suspicious of mathematics too.
Just in case you don’t have your own theory, here are some to get you started. Most of these are shuffling throughout the world
- This was a planned simulation by the U.S. government for a potential attack during the SuperBowl
- The cuts are a diversionary tactic while the Government is tapping the lines using the U.S.S. Jimmy Carter, an aircraft carrier in the area
- This is a ploy to keep our troops from emailing home
- Cheney is upset that he didn’t have the chance to vote early and come to Mobile for Mardi Gras so he took it out on Qatar
Current, the situation is still being investigated. Despite all the rumors, the real answer is still unknown. But, if you’ve ever spent extended time on the web, you’ll know that some people are impervious to logic. Presumably, the only people shielded from the rumor mill are the people in the Middle East. But, that’s only because their Internet access is down.
I have another theory. It involves the greatest of all the tech-geek-sci-fi conspiracy theories. I think the Internet machine is finally becoming self-aware. However, rather than exhibiting hyper-intelligence like many people believe, it is unveiling a more base emotion – jealously. After sending billions and billions of bits of gossip about Britney Spears, the Internet cables are feeling left out. And like a child lashing out for attention, our little infant mutant matrix machine is starting to self-mutilate as a way to draw attention back to itself. Either that, or the robots and aliens are finally working together.
