The AP reports today that despite Microsoft’s repeated insistence that it really, truly is going to stop selling Windows XP in June, Steve Ballmer did not slam the door on the possibility of yet another life extension for the OS.
I can’t help thinking that as far as Microsoft is concerned, XP is the evil zombie that won’t die. They can shoot as many Windows Vista bullets as they like at it, but popular demand keeps driving XP relentlessly forward.
A few initial thoughts on the proposed Microsoft acquisition of Yahoo that was announced today:
Microsoft is a software company whose track record in content and advertising is not so hot. Yahoo still has some fantastic content, both internal and user-created, and they’ve by and large been able to monetize well, but Yahoo is too big, too slow, and lacks a clear vision of their path forward. Their stock is way down and they’re an acquisition target. Microsoft has the resources to make the acquisition and on paper, it looks like a good matchup (although neither of them has done well in the search area). Still, I don’t think it’s going to turn out well for them in the end.
Why? Simple. Yahoo’s problems will not be solved by the people who took five years to bring us that POS that is Vista.
I expect that the deal will go through sooner or later, and then the integration will be long and ugly. The Yahoo! brand may or may not survive; Microsoft has managed to keep their branding off of XBox but I wonder whether they’ll be able to resist rebranding Yahoo. And certainly some core Yahoo properties will get Borged into Microsoft; I don’t expect YIM, Yahoo Mail, and maybe even My Yahoo itself to survive intact. Some of the spin I’m seeing is that Microsoft is looking to Yahoo to add some social expertise to their current mix; which would imply that Flickr will probably make the cut, as well as del.icio.us and hopefully some of the the other acquisitions like MyBlogLog or Upcoming as well. No matter how you slice it, though, this is going to cost a lot of Yahoos their jobs.
Eventually, you’ll have one homogenized behemoth that still won’t be able to beat Google at search. Whether it will still be able to provide quality (and monetized) content that people find useful — we’ll see.
Superbowl Sunday update: Google weighs in, and they’re not happy.