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Question of the Day: How do you normally pay for purchases in stores?
Steve Ballmer’s big bet
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The_Unbeliever
Honorary Master
Another problem - Yahoo is open-source, M$ is proprietary, close-source.
With smartphones you can also read and edit (albeit limited) certain Microsoft Office documents.
The problem being that you cannot cram a fully-fledged Office suite onto a smartphone, its CPU and RAM won't cope with the demand.
So therefore it will make sense to use online office suites to edit and create documents.
But offline Office packages (openoffice, etc) will still be in use, at huge companies and people who can't afford it to remain online (dial-up, telkom pricing and capping, etc).
The next few years will be very interesting.
I think should M$ take Yahoo over, then we'll see a big collapse.
M$ should rather leave Yahoo alone, and concentrate on improving their products. (make them leaner, smaller and faster).
With smartphones you can also read and edit (albeit limited) certain Microsoft Office documents.
The problem being that you cannot cram a fully-fledged Office suite onto a smartphone, its CPU and RAM won't cope with the demand.
So therefore it will make sense to use online office suites to edit and create documents.
But offline Office packages (openoffice, etc) will still be in use, at huge companies and people who can't afford it to remain online (dial-up, telkom pricing and capping, etc).
The next few years will be very interesting.
I think should M$ take Yahoo over, then we'll see a big collapse.
M$ should rather leave Yahoo alone, and concentrate on improving their products. (make them leaner, smaller and faster).
AirWolf
Honorary Master
Doesn't the situation with these three (Google, Yahoo, and MS) kinda sound like the political situation in SA (ANC, DA, IFP etc)?
LazyLion
King of de Jungle
Um, did Microsoft ever have the plot in the first place? It has always been about dominance and crowding out the competition. Sure Windows has been the killer operating system, but why? Because it was technically superior? No, because it dominated the desktop market. Microsoft's fall has been a long time coming.... but it was always a given that it would fall at some time... that much is inevitable.
In another thread I spoke about the writing on tech sites as being rather inept. This extract epitomises my thoughts on this issue.
I know and understand that Duncan McLeod is extremely respected by the likes of the staunch MyBroadband supporters. Some people make a career out of writing opinion pieces, and often tongue-in-cheek ramblings offer entertainment to many a reader, however, Mr McLeod's insinuations are rather stretching to say the least. This opinion piece reeks. It is a despicable, rotten abomination that should never see the light of day in any respectable newspaper. Mr McLeod, in what world do you live where Yahoo is a "a has-been Internet company"? Yahoo is one of the largest and most innovative Internet businesses in the world. I fail to see how a multi billion dollar company could qualify for a "has been".
Further, Microsoft have attempted to acquire Yahoo for the past 3 years. This, as anybody that works in the IT industry would tell you, is nothing new.
Microsoft's core business is not under threat. They still hold a market share of over 90%, and like all big companies that value delivering quality to their stakeholders, the company is intent on diversifying and competing head on with Google. What better way to do this than acquire a company already doing so?
It's sad testament of the quality of media when speculative, opinionated rubbish such as this is published.
AirWolf
Honorary Master
Looking at the stats Yahoo is the largest minnow in front of Google
And fast declining to boot.
chiskop
Executive Member
What BobbyMac?
Did you read the part in this article about the 25% drop in the use of Yahoo! search in the last year? Did you miss the announcement (before the MS offer) that Yahoo! was to lay off hundreds of employees? That article also points out that Yahoo!'s market value has fallen by $12bn in the last 2 years.
Is that also opinionated, speculative rubbish?
I agree that, although there're threats to MS's desktop/ office suite dominance, they are not likely to be seriously challenged in that space for some time. But Yahoo has been heading downward for some time now.
Did you read the part in this article about the 25% drop in the use of Yahoo! search in the last year? Did you miss the announcement (before the MS offer) that Yahoo! was to lay off hundreds of employees? That article also points out that Yahoo!'s market value has fallen by $12bn in the last 2 years.
Is that also opinionated, speculative rubbish?
I agree that, although there're threats to MS's desktop/ office suite dominance, they are not likely to be seriously challenged in that space for some time. But Yahoo has been heading downward for some time now.
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How does that make them a "has been". Ford has fired thousands more people - are they a "has been"? Every company on the planet goes through a tough time - Yahoo are not about to be reduced to bankruptcy
eltherza
Expert Member
But it's undeniable that Google is making a big dent and really putting microsoft in it's place. Years ago, hotmail was great. Gmail has since then taken over, I shudder at checking my mail from hotmail. I leave my gmail open almost all the time and only check my hotmail once every 3months or so. So Gmail gets (at least) 2 logins per day from me. Google gets over 200 more chances to advertise to me than microsoft using gmail alone.
Is MS in trouble? Not right now, but I think that MS missed the boat on the whole internet making money and has always wanted a piece of that pie. But that is typical MS, buy into the "the next best thing online". Myspace, facebook, etc etc.
chiskop
Executive Member
How does that make them a "has been". Ford has fired thousands more people - are they a "has been"? Every company on the planet goes through a tough time - Yahoo are not about to be reduced to bankruptcy
I never said they were facing impending bankruptcy - but that's hardly the picture of "one of the largest and most innovative Internet businesses in the world" as you called them.
I just think that your attack on Duncan MacLeod and the media in general was a little excessive.
The_Unbeliever
Honorary Master
What other revenue streams do Microsoft have, apart from their Office and Windows applications/operating systems?
What are their expenses at the moment?
Does Facebook count as expense?
If a company's expenses exceed the income, then the result is either the company have to either outsource, retrench staff, sell off some assets/debts and in general, do a bit of cleanup to be leaner.
If Yahoo's on the decline, then M$ will have to pump in some money to keep it afloat, another piece of debt - or get rid of services which aren't generating revenue, thereby making Yahoo less attractive.
What are their expenses at the moment?
Does Facebook count as expense?
If a company's expenses exceed the income, then the result is either the company have to either outsource, retrench staff, sell off some assets/debts and in general, do a bit of cleanup to be leaner.
If Yahoo's on the decline, then M$ will have to pump in some money to keep it afloat, another piece of debt - or get rid of services which aren't generating revenue, thereby making Yahoo less attractive.
I was taking on someone for stating that Yahoo is a "has-been" company - when clearly they're not.
Frankly I'm a little tired of these little opinion pieces being passed off as worthy news articles. McLeod may be a respectable journalist, but this kind of speculative trash belongs in a blog - not as a leading story of a tech news website.
Think what you will, but everyone seems to be quite happy what the media feeds them these days, irrespective of whether there is even a grain of truth contained in them.
Other than google, who is a larger and more innovative internet business than yahoo?
How does that make them a "has been". Ford has fired thousands more people - are they a "has been"? Every company on the planet goes through a tough time - Yahoo are not about to be reduced to bankruptcy
Not the best example, last I heard Ford have been tottering on the brink of oblivion for a while now. They're a company that about as close as you can get to being a has-been without going into bankruptcy.
That would depend on the relative weightings you assign to large & innovative. There's no doubt Yahoo's large, and there is innovation within the company, their js libraries are quite good, but their actual product to me is a whole lot of stale, ad-infested garbage.
The less said about the Yahoo messenger & that blasted toolbar the better.
*sigh* Ford is not a "has-been". They certainly are struggling though. But, OK, if you want a different example: HP, Dell, IBM, Intel, AMD. Every single one of those companies at some point or another lost billions in market share and laid off thousands of jobs. How many of those are "has-beens"?
chiskop
Executive Member
When the leading company in the sector has ~90% market share, I don't think you can call anybody else in that sector large.
Yeah, I was looking at the YUI libraries this morning, and there's (Yahoo! properties) del.icio.us and flickr, which are certainly innovative. But the portal and email, Yahoo's core businesses, show little innovation.