--So I am giving you a link to their announcement in the last 24 hours so you can listen to the LIVE conference call at 8:30 am EST with CEO's Bartz and Ballmer.
Go to:
http://www.choicevalueinnovation.com/thedeal/pressroom/Default.aspx
My take:
--Who really cares?!!!
--Yahoo is a lost player, no vision, wandering in the last 5 years. Most legacy users who came for its Yahoo Groups 5-10 years back (and groups collapsed when the sex oriented posting aspects were filtered out) are gone or Yahoo is a second priority tool on their desktop (only Yahoo IM saves their relevance. The numbers don't stand up in anyway to Google. The best it is ...is as a counter in online media negotiations...maybe (at best).
--M-soft gets the best deal. No upfront $$$, all shared revenue percentages. And they get a platform--albeit a tired one--to drive their tech solutions and applications thru.
--And Microsoft continues as the 1000 pound gorilla you have to watch...yet the gorilla is getting long in the tooth. How? The Bing browser is not a step beyond Google. Second, the era of "pay a lot of money for this software" model is done. Enter the OPEN-SOURCE era. Apple and Google are giving the software away free or $.99. Android. Chrome. 75,000 iphone apps. And this is going to explode in the next 12 months. And where is the tired Microsoft Windows? Going thru its umpteenth release again (and no one cares..unless of course it comes FREE!)
The big asset that could be their breakout play is X-box. A high speed, multi-platform wrapped in total experiential strength...with a jillion young to medium age game fanatics devouring it everyday. This is the powerhouse that could emerge...X-box as your everything
tool (not just gaming).
So listen to the call, think...Bartz had no option, Ballmer had no option...big layoffs are coming for the Yahooers...and Google is already 2-3 years out focused on where it is all going.
From my marketer-tech perspective that is all about:
-- online 3.o where the empowered search/value consumer drives it
-- where high speed allows the user to have movies and user generated video anywhere, anytime...either free or so cheap (there goes the TV network model as the record label/retail model did)
--where social network interaction emerges at the 5X level because it is about friends/passions (and Facebook is the force)
--AND MOST IMPORTANTLY...where MOBILE 2G/3G phones shift the game the most. The handheld "key to my life" device is now able to deliver everything. And it does it not via the internet but via "the cloud". It does it without a browser and the antiquated scrolling thru "pages". It is about your chosen APPS making it happen fast, in a fun and relevant and semi-customizable way. Yes it is still coming...but it is coming at Warp speed. And it is coming with younger, more progressive, passionate people having jumpstarted it all with the iPhone and the 10+ clones coming now.
(and yes Twitter is significant as a spin and customer service tool and with 35+ people; but no one under 35 is using it, as they are using Facebook and its functions to do the same. Twitter will be bought and incorporated into an existing offering. And all major platforms will deliver a Tweet-like function)
Just a little bit of input. No you can go back to driving your business and enjoying the summer.
I just wonder where the upstart, break the rules, innovative spirit is that founders Gates & Yang had...because it is not there with Balmer and Bartz.
Patrick
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