This is a stupid move for both sides and if it goes through it will essentially cede the entire search engine and internet portal business to google. There are a lot of people that have been with Yahoo from the beginning that will leave if Microsoft owns them, myself included. Microsoft needs to focus on its core businesses, which are slipping. Yahoo needs to revitalize itself and drop a lot of the dead weight, probably including Yang. Icahn does not have the best interests of either company in mind. He's going to push the takeover through and then dump and then move on to the next thing. At the end, Yahoo will be dead, Microsoft will take a big loss, and Google will be standing alone without a viable competitor. Yahoo by Microsoft = Excite or Lycos.
They can't very well offer Operating Systems and Productivity Software online for free -- as they will eventually have to do -- if they don't have the advertising base to support them.
Well, I guess that means Microsoft doesn't need to concern itself with offering Office or Exchange online then. 7/8:
Who said they wouldn't put it online? All Exchange online does is move the hosting from your business' MDF to MS' server farm. It also has significant cost, just like any other dedicated co-lo site with 24/7 uptime. Online does not equal free. I can operate an entire 1000 user office "online" with few locally housed servers by running everything virtually at evault. Offsite is the evolution of the product. The software still pretty much works the same, however and it isn't free. You're saying that they are going to have to give their products away free and then their main source of revenue is going to be in selling ads. Who's gonna make money off those ads when everyone has to give away stuff for free? Also notice that you don't see a single service offered free on there. Ads work for google because their primary business is search. Search and ads fit neatly together. I'm sure businesses will be lining up for a free copy of Exchange with a gmail setup with targeted advertising emails based on the content of their business emails.
