Microsoft preps Yahoo! proxy attack When Bill Gates says an offer is fair, he means it. According to The New York Times' DealBook blog, Microsoft will soon spark a Yahoo! proxy fight rather than up its $44.6bn bid for the beleaguered Web portal. An increased bid would cost the company billions more, but sources tell DealBook that Microsoft could launch a proxy …
This is the problem with being a publicly-traded company -- you're obligated to do what's best for the shareholders, not what's best for the company. The best thing for Yahoo!, the company, is to decline the takeover. But the best thing for the shareholders most likely is to accept it. The shareholders will get boatloads of money, but the company will be sunk; it'll be stripped for parts and most of the employees will most likely be sent packing. But hey, who cares about the competitive and economic impact as long as we get a couple more m/billionaires out of the deal?
Of course, Microsoft themselves are equally vulnerable to Proxy fighting, which in the final analysis, always boil down to the competence and core business and moral values of the main protagonists.
Given the Perception that Microsoft are not of the Do No Evil crowd, for Bill to get into that scrap would be ........... well, brave would be one adjective and foolhardy would be another.
"The best thing for Yahoo!, the company, is to decline the takeover. But the best thing for the shareholders most likely is to accept it. The shareholders will get boatloads of money, but the company will be sunk; it'll be stripped for parts and most of the employees will most likely be sent packing." ..... Hmmm? With boatloads of money, starting all over again, without deadwood baggage, is a Godsend surely?
If Microsoft gets Yahoo.... Things are just gonna get worse. Microsoft's way of doing things has never been truly for the benefit of its customer's. They are so detached from what the average user actually WANTS that they are now want to screw over the entire internet in general. It seems as of late, in the U.S. you have to choose between the lesser of two evils quite often these days. I'd rather have Google doing the whip cracking rather than Microsoft. You know what, I'd rather Yahoo just throw itself into a volcano as a sacrifice to appease the Silicon Gods in California.
Microsoft eating Yahoo! is worse than Yahoo! itself.
As much as I despise some of Yahoo!'s doings like the Chinese stuff and renaming Konfabulator to a lame "Yahoo! Widgets", it still is better than the crappy Microsoft camp.
"I'm intrigued: in what way? In that they can crash and burn with their principles intact?"
I'd rather see Yahoo! go down in flames than in Microsoft's hands. I still remember what happened to HoTMaiL after the MS takeover.
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