losers buying losers. so what. pk has good analysis on this:

http://paul.kedrosky.com/archives/2007/05/04/microsoft_yahoo.html

Most analysts will probably say, "think of the combined power!"

I'd say: Think of the combined inertia.

To further abuse the analogy, it's like two huge masses colliding so now you need twice the escape velocity. We may never see another product launch from either company.

"Microsoft and Yahoo in recent months discussed a possible merger of the two companies or some kind of match-up that would pair their respective strengths, say people familiar with the situation. But the merger discussions are no longer active, these people say. The two companies may still explore other ways of cooperating."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117827827757492168.html?mod=home_whats_news_us

This is just some hedge fund manipulating the market by making up a fake story that press just eats up.

After all, MS will learn some Lisp by looking at Viaweb sources.

Bill Gates says he knows Lisp: http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/comphist/gates.htm#tc2

I think Yahoo rewrote Viaweb in C++. The only thing that's still remotely Lispy about it is that they kept RTML.

That's pretty Lispy, because RTML is stored on disk as s-expressions. So rewriting Viaweb in C++ literally meant writing a Lisp interpreter.

Wow, someone should give Yahoo an award for "Most literal application of Greenspun's Tenth Rule."

Actually, plenty of people at Microsoft know Lisp.

Even if it's true, does this really matter? I might be wrong, but to me it seems that both companies are sliding into irrelevancy anyway.

The big winner in this deal would of course be Google. MS/Yahoo will spend years on integrating and infighting.

I hope not :-(

Another exclusive from the New York Post? Why should they know anything?

It's on Yahoo news too ( http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070504/ap_on_hi_te/microsoft_yahoo;_ylt=AntWG4EvKLA7xQ..KNF5e4HMWM0F ). The Y!News story cites the Post article as a source, but it would be pretty funny if Yahoo News reported on a story about Yahoo that wasn't true...

FWIW, The WSJ is reporting on it too:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117827827757492168.html?mod=home_whats_news_us

Reuters mentions both stories: http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/070504/yahoo_microsoft.html?.v=9

The Post's business section is surprisingly respectable. The traders I know prefer it to the Times.

Let's hope this never materializes :( We're (startups) all screwed if it does.

Startups are screwed? A MS/Yahoo combination is a play by MS to get immediate marketshare in search and other major online services so that it can allow it's MSN monetization engine to compete.

Startups shouldn't be looking to compete with the core businesses of Google and MS/Yahoo. They should (I think):

1. Invent a new service 2. Improve a service that sucks

I doubt PG funded anyone who claims they can build a better search engine.

There are some thing big companies can do and other things they can't (i.e. Justin.TV).

If MS buys Yahoo, the internet loses a lot of useful applications (as obviously the Yahoo stuff won't be usable anymore in the long run). Hence more opportunities for startups, I would think?

Look how well the google/dodgeball, the overture/yahoo, and now flickr/yahoo did. now think how ms/yahoo will do. big, fat, fat, fat, giant. fat, fat, fat...

That would actually be good for us. The slower they become, the more nimble us startups look in comparison.

Why's that?

Big companies may be slow, but some of them have significant startup-smooshing power. Presumably, the fear is that the MS-Yahoo conglomerate would attempt to smoosh startups by, say, making everything Yahoo work only with things MS, and generally promoting lock-in and anti-open anti-internet-stuff. It might not work, but when such large objects are in play it seems reasonable to worry.

WTF?

If a software giant buys an Internet company, then an Internet giant should buy a software house. This translates to "Google is eyeing Adobe". Just my 2 eurocents :)