Microshaft? No

Yes, I am still employed. Thanks to all of you who have expressed concern over my situation. Yahoo is still an independent company as of this post. That could change any second, but for the time being, I’m still a Yahoo.

This whole Microsoft acquisition thing is a bummer. While Yahoo has had a few rough quarters, the company was fundamentally headed in the right direction after Jerry Yang took the reigns as CEO.

Have we made mistakes? Certainly. Is it all doom & gloom at the company? No, it’s not, but there is lots of concern with the potential of having a company like Microsoft acquire us. I’d be more disappointed then scared. The thing is, there are some incredibly talented people that work at Yahoo. So talented, that I’d say that a majority would have no problem finding work elsewhere.

I’d be disappointed, because many of those talented people would voluntarily leave to work elsewhere. I suspect that a large majority of Yahoos have no interest in working for Microsoft. The place would be decimated by self inflicted departures. That means, Microsoft would be buying a technology, but losing the talent that devised developed and deployed it.

So they’re going to pay $41 billion for some software and a few customers who want nothing to do with Microsoft either? What were they thinking when they decided to tender their public offer?

MS has a history of trying to solve problems by throwing cash at it, yet, many of those problems go unresolved. Can they risk $41 billion on the chance that they might become competitive in the search space? I doubt it.

We’re working on some really cool things. I just hope we have the opportunity to deliver on some of those things. Yahoo is a great place to work. I’ve had plenty of offers to leave, but there never was a reason. I love the culture, the people and the location. A Microsoft acquisition would likely change all of that.