Yahoo v. Microsoft - Ballmer Must Be PISSED!!!

Now that the baton of Microsoft leadership has been clearly passed from Bill Gates to Steve Ballmer.

For the emerging "Rock Stars" under Ray Ozzie's direction (the "more open" cloud/browser based architecture) this represents a defeat. For the "stodgy"old office/vista crew, this is a "told you so" victory.

So the question I have is, is this dealing done? Microsoft could cause the value of Yahoo stock to drop to a record low and then swoop in with a hostile takeover, who could blame them at that time, they tried to play nice and Jerry Yang fucked them. The big buyout parachutes Yahoo put up for employees is no longer valid if there is no buyout....what will keep the Yahoo "Rock Stars" at Yahoo...I doubt developer alliances at Yahoo run so deep that Microsoft could not lure away a substantial tallent pool



Anyways, the big winner here is Google, they were the deal breaker, they don't give a shit about Yahoo unless it strengthens Microsofts hands. So maybe Yahoo is completely off the radar and Microsoft squarely goes after Google.

SO, it will be interesting to watch the stock price of both Yahoo and Microsoft next week. I would also suspect Microsoft needs to brush this aside and clearly signal it's next move before folks dwell on the Yahoo deal as a sign of weakness.