The Big News Today:
Which of these stories grab you? The Labor Department reported today that the economy lost 17,000 jobs in January. Or Microsoft bid $44.6 billion for Yahoo. Ironically, both are signs of failure. Everyone is aware that the American economy, perhaps even the world economy, is in some form of free fall, and things just don't look so hot.
The Microsoft bid for Yahoo, however, needs a little more thought. Yahoo hasn't made any headway in its business scheme. Google has just been too successful. And Microsoft is running scared, unable to compete with Google head to head. No, there's no worry that Microsoft is about to go broke. The company still has a stranglehold on nearly everyone's computer, regardless of the recent success of Apple and the open source community with the their innovations in Web browsers, office suits and the Linux operating system that is almost as easy to use as Microsoft's products.
The Yahoo bid illustrates the problem that Microsoft faces in competing with Google. Microsoft wants in on the search business in a much bigger way than it already is, and it has given up on being able to out think these upstarts. So it's resorting to a tactic that has served it well throughout its history. It's going to buy out a chief competitor.
Will this work? Or will the only people who will be smiling on their way to the bank be the folks at Yahoo who walk away with their share of those billions of dollars?
If nothing else, this demonstrates just how terrified Microsoft is of "Cloud Computing."
By the way, did you notice Bush's voice today when he commented on the job loss report? Talk about somebody sounding worried. There goes that illusion about legacy.
Here's what Gail Collins reported in The New York Times G. W. as saying back on Feb. 1, 2000: "I think we need not only to eliminate the tollbooth from the middle class, I think we should knock down the tollbooth."
Which of these stories grab you? The Labor Department reported today that the economy lost 17,000 jobs in January. Or Microsoft bid $44.6 billion for Yahoo. Ironically, both are signs of failure. Everyone is aware that the American economy, perhaps even the world economy, is in some form of free fall, and things just don't look so hot.
The Microsoft bid for Yahoo, however, needs a little more thought. Yahoo hasn't made any headway in its business scheme. Google has just been too successful. And Microsoft is running scared, unable to compete with Google head to head. No, there's no worry that Microsoft is about to go broke. The company still has a stranglehold on nearly everyone's computer, regardless of the recent success of Apple and the open source community with the their innovations in Web browsers, office suits and the Linux operating system that is almost as easy to use as Microsoft's products.
The Yahoo bid illustrates the problem that Microsoft faces in competing with Google. Microsoft wants in on the search business in a much bigger way than it already is, and it has given up on being able to out think these upstarts. So it's resorting to a tactic that has served it well throughout its history. It's going to buy out a chief competitor.
Will this work? Or will the only people who will be smiling on their way to the bank be the folks at Yahoo who walk away with their share of those billions of dollars?
If nothing else, this demonstrates just how terrified Microsoft is of "Cloud Computing."
By the way, did you notice Bush's voice today when he commented on the job loss report? Talk about somebody sounding worried. There goes that illusion about legacy.
Here's what Gail Collins reported in The New York Times G. W. as saying back on Feb. 1, 2000: "I think we need not only to eliminate the tollbooth from the middle class, I think we should knock down the tollbooth."
posted by Jim | 6:14 PM
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