Yahoo Ain't Worth No $44 Billion
If you listen to Wall Street,
paying
$44 billion for Yahoo is the smartest idea since E=mc2. Google's stock is
down, and Yahoo is on the rise after Steve Ballmer's public pitch for the No.
2 search engine concern.
Let me toss some cold water on this little love-fest.
I don't see anything in the Yahoo portfolio that Microsoft doesn't already
have. It's kinda like Time magazine buying Newsweek, Coke buying Pepsi
or BP merging with Exxon -- just more of the same. Even worse, Yahoo
is on the decline (its market share and financials are more like Boo-Hoo
than Yahoo!).
Yahoo is, to a large degree, a legacy company. All its core offerings -- search,
e-mail, forums, news and IM -- have been around for years. Why spend $44 billion
to buy the past when you could invest that money in inventing the future?
This deal seems like a knee-jerk reaction to the Google threat. Instead of
building technologies that can outpace Google, Microsoft is hoping to buy a
company that has proven it can't keep pace. From a purely business standpoint,
maybe the Yahoo audience is worth that kind of cash -- but this isn't a deal
based on technical innovation. What do you think? Write me at [email protected].
IBM and Virtual Power
Those wedded to Wintel servers may not even realize that the old PowerPC processor
(now called Power) still exists. While Apple may have bailed on the Power architecture,
it still drives the world's fastest supercomputers and a line of IBM servers,
as well.
One of the selling points of the IBM System p line -- besides sheer horsepower
-- is energy-efficiency and high-efficiency. The System p actually has virtualization
built into almost every aspect of the system, from apps to IO to management.
Formerly a pretty high-end solution, IBM is pushing a new tool, PowerVM
Express, to small and medium-size businesses. The Power-based servers run
every OS under the sun -- except Windows!
Stripping Vista Down to the Good Stuff
Vista gets far more criticism for what it has than for what it doesn't. The
big complaints have to do with too many functions running up against too little
processing.
If you want Vista but not the overhead of Media Player and other features aimed
largely at consumers, then vLite
is for you. This free tool strips Vista of all the features you never wanted
in the first place.
Funny Stuff? You Be the Judge
Every so often, a cartoonist sends me samples of IT humor hoping to get published.
In all cases, the work has been lamer than Barbaro's right leg.
There's a new contender for the IT cartoon Hall of Fame, this time sponsored
by Microsoft. The strip is called "HEROES
happen {here}." Not sure what that name is supposed to mean, but it
sure ain't funny.
The strip is also designed to show off Silverlight. In fact, you have to download
Silverlight before you can start laughing your IT butt off. I went through the
process, wanting to give the strip a full whirl. The result? Less laughter than
a Bill Belichick press conference.
About the Author
Doug Barney is editor in chief of Redmond magazine and the VP, editorial director of Redmond Media Group.