Who are we? In the first que are the investors, with some direct or indirect money raked in one of these giants:Yahoo, or, Microsoft; second in line would be both firm's employees with fingers
crossed about their future;not far behind would be Google with ears trained to Yahoo's boardroom;also intrigued are Yahoo's users from Flickr,Answers,360, and not to forget good old Yahoo Mail;we bloggers are also spending midnight oil in speculating and spreading the news, but finally I think it'll be Jerry Lang going to bed with this question: "To be (microsoft), or not to be".

I am not here to talk figures in nthis post, but as part of my sunday review post I would scan through some intersting posts o this affair. I couldn't help but notice Flickr's protest group:-

1) Microsoft Keep your Evil Grubby Hands of Our Flickr:
The group has 3482 members at the time of writing. And its ever growing. Most of the members strongly think about Microsoft's approach.( click on the image to find the group)

2) Terence Chang an expert blogger and a paid (Flickr) loyal Yahoo user has also expressed strongly against the merger possibility.

3) Well, some simply think Google is too good to be bogged down by this merger. Presuming that Microsoft's biggest enemy is Google and buying Yahoo is their strategy to go one up on Google, I would think there is more to it than that. Ankesh Kothari of Blog Clout
simply resonates the opinion that merger wouldn't baffle Google as Google in invincible. Ankesh goes on to suggest Microsoft to buy Wordpress and Ebay instead.


4) Industry insiders are adamant on their insight that Yahoo doesn't want take it, as yet. As the offer on the table at present is $31/share for Yahoo's 1.4 billion shares. Some believe Microsoft won't be able to dole out more than this, so a NO for now would be very likely. Techcrunch has been firm with that view. But valley insider such as, Henry Blodget of Alleyinsider have pointed out that Microsoft are playing a waiting game. They met with Yahoo's largest shareholder Capital Research and Management, who interestingly also have 6% of Microsoft shares. Now, the news going round is that the Cap group wouldn't want the $31 offer to rise.

Let me summarise now:

Yahoo's position:
1) Sell meekly on $31/share offer as some of the shareholders are happy!and NO other bidders have emerged.(highly unlikely)
2) Say NO, on monday and start negotiating tactics to raise the offer (most likely), also may be encourage other bidders to come up.
3) Explore outsourcing Search side of business to Google (possible but unliekly), as that will scare Microsoft

Microsoft's Position:
1) Back away as unable to increase on $31 offer as yet, and bide time to start negotiations.(most likely)
2) Get into fast negotiation and still get a fair deal for just under $40,(their ideal situations)
3) Be rejected by Yahoo straightaway, so Microsoft will have to look for other avenues such as Wordpress and EBay otherwise face angry stakeholders due to devaluation of their share values.


I am scratching my head, but honestly I dn't know why! I am not affected by any of this anyhow! I just wanted to see whats best for the users of Yahoo, Microsoft and Google. But does it really matter who owns Flickr if we get the right service. Look at Stumble Upon, EBay has let it be..

Image Credit from Flickr