beyondthemba

Microsoft says it is ending bid for Yahoo - May. 3, 2008

Link: Microsoft says it is ending bid for Yahoo - May. 3, 2008.

I wonder what the history books will say about this one? It could be the biggest mistake of Yahoo's life or it may have saved Yahoo from the Microsoft crushing bureaucracy. Either way, I think it will turn out to be a major disservice to the Yahoo shareholders.

When will the Yahoo shares fetch the type of premium Microsoft was willing to offer? Yahoo's board should be looking out for the best interest of the shareholders and, while I have not done the math, my guess is when figuring in time value of money, this offer was higher than any return any shareholder in Yahoo could possibly get now.

Yahoo Corporation Public Press Release on the ending of the talks.

The End of "on premise" Enterprise Software?

Frank Scavo has a great blog entry concerning the future of "on-demand" software and the potential demise of "on premise" software. He rightfully points out that this is not much different then the old "time sharing" model for computing on mainframes. However, that was due to the high cost of hardware and this move to "on demand" is due to the high cost of software and software maintenance.

He points out that the two normal knocks on this are the risk of security and the lack of customization. Both are being addressed. However, I would submit that the lack of customization may be a benefit. The high costs are normally due to everyone believing they have their own way of doing things. How many different ways can you pay an invoice. I suggest you read the article and if your company still has a "resides here" mentality, start to challenge it.