I’ve been reading a lot of news lately about this Yahoo / Microsoft deal that fell through. Now the latest is that some big share holders are trying to force the deal to go through by replacing Yahoo’s board. It just goes to show how Wall Street misunderstands the situation. Stocks increased on the run up to the deal deadline. After it fell through, Yahoo stocks slipped. Anyone with half a brain would have picked up a few shares after the slip which is exactly what I did. Of course I’m not a 5% stake holder in the company but a few shares I do own and I felt like venting my frustration at the other vocal shareholders trying to force the deal with Microsoft.

Yahoo has long been in battle with Microsoft even from the early days with Hotmail. A deal with Microsoft would essentially devalue the Yahoo brand and have it lose respect among the geek community. Over the past year or two Yahoo has been growing its web business in the right direction. Its acquisitions of Flickr and Del.icio.us are just 2 examples off the top of my head. Those two names alone boost Yahoo’s appeal as a company which is why Microsoft is after them in the first place.

More importantly is their search technology. Despite Google’s dominance in search, Yahoo’s search engine has gotten extremely better over the past few years. Its results are typically much more accurate than Google’s in my opinion and they’ve been growing more and more appealing as an alternative to Google’s mythical magic search engine. Anyone who watches search engine rankings will tell you that Yahoo’s search results are much more consistent over time which makes it even more appealing. Not only that but SEO for Yahoo versus Google is more scientific and less voodoo. Its just another reason why Yahoo has been looking like its positioning itself more and more to become an extremely formidable online presence. Microsoft recognizes that and wants to low ball them before they secure their footing and get a steal on a buyout bid. The stockholders are on Microsoft’s side because they see a potential short term gain in stock value.

What they fail to see is that a Yahoo - Microsoft merger would essentially ruin any chances of a truly successful online presence for Yahoo and Microsoft. Microsoft has proven itself incapable of bringing anything worthwhile to the online arena even with past acquisitions of online businesses. Its ultimately a dooms day deal for Yahoo that’s being pushed by a few big stockholders who want some quick cash and have little interest in the long term success of Yahoo’s technology. I’m behind their technology and support them but selling out to Microsoft is likely going to sour the support Yahoo’s built up in recent years and ultimately fail as usual in the hands of Microsoft. Microsoft is a has been. Ask any kid who’s used a Mac before. They’re desperate and see the writing on the wall. They want to prolong their demise by purchasing promising web companies.

My guess is that Microsoft has wooed these stockholders privately in a lobbying type effort. Their thinking is that instead of raising their bid that they’ll woo a few big stockholders to replace Yahoo’s board and get their low ball deal for the company. Its typical Microsoft at its best. Either way, Yahoo’s stock is destined to go up whether they sell or don’t sell. No sale means they continue their forward progress and continue to build their momentum in a positive direction. I’ll likely keep my shares in that case. Sell and I’ll likely sell my shares shortly before the acquisition so I don’t end up with a loss at the end of the day. I’m no day trader but those are my thoughts as a web developer who’s seen these two companies have their better days.

Microsoft has a spam filter that once it thinks you’re a spammer will pretty much never allow you to send legitimate emails. For any internet based company, emails are critical to the operation and need to get through or there’s no business. Microsoft has developed an approach through Sender Score Certified where they’ll let you pay them to be whitelisted. Its pretty much the only way I found to get off their shit list. The cost is about $1500 in all and has taken me 3 months or so to complete. The whole process was a big run around over and over sending me to different people and sites to do silly tasks. People rarely responded to any emails or phone calls I made and I had all but given up on it when they finally responded with a few minor changes I needed to make to our site in order to complete the process. Email has always been a free thing to deliver. It seems to me that Microsoft has found a way to capitalize on the fact that online companies must be able to send emails by forcing them to pay to get added to their whitelist. Basically, if too many people click on this is spam then you’re learned as spam and you’re screwed. You’ve got to pay to get whitelisted at that point. Sucks for online companies but its a great, albeit sleazy, business strategy for Microsoft to make some extra cash.