It is always nice when a major awaited event comes to conclusion (even if only temporary), so that you can try and remember which pundits had it right and which didn’t. I specifically remember a TWIT episode where Jason Calcanis predicted that the merger would happen within the next week. I think he also mentioned that Google would buy Skype from Ebay either in that same podcast or one around the same time.
Although YAHOO is up about 1.4% today so far, it has generally been down while MICROSOFT has generally tended on an up trend. Still seems strange to me how a company with so many great properties cannot manage to come up with a real strategy for the future. Just goes to show that money doesn’t but happiness, right?
Well, if anyone came out as a winner from the whole deal or lack thereof, it would have to be open source software. After all, YAHOO is a major LAMP stack company and open source user. Had Microsoft taken them over, wouldn’t all of their services have gone the way of HOTMAIL? Eventual conversion to Microsoft platforms? I tend to think so.
So in summary - institutional investors are left flat (they own both Yahoo and Microsoft), Microsoft is slightly up, Yahoo continues to be down but by no way out, and the open source community is the true winner. Hurray!